Tommy Fleetwood Reveals Scary Reason Wife Clare Missed His 1st PGA TOUR Win

Tommy Fleetwood revealed why his wife, Clare, was not in attendance to help celebrate his long-awaited first PGA TOUR victory last month.

After 15 years on the TOUR, Fleetwood, 34, took home his first title on August 24, winning the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. 

When the big moment came, however, Fleetwood’s family was conspicuously absent. 

“Our middle boy, Mo, had a spinal operation just over a month ago now,” Fleetwood told reporters on Wednesday, September 10. “So they were unable to travel. Actually the week of Memphis, they were in the hospital and he was recovering and they actually just got home before we got home. He had three-and-a-half weeks I think in the hospital.”

Tommy and Clare, 57, have been married since 2017. The couple share son Franklin “Frankie,” 7, and Tommy is stepfather to Clare’s two sons from her previous marriage: Oscar and Murray “Mo,” who were both born in the early 2000s. 

Mo is on the road to recovery, and Tommy hopes his victory last month will help serve as inspiration for all three of his boys. 

“It’s easy to tell the kids the right thing all the time,” Tommy said on Wednesday. “But being an example that it can happen for you if you keep going, I think more than anything, it was like, I had the opportunity to show my kids what can happen, and then like you can do it.”

Moments after finally winning his first PGA tournament, Tommy acknowledged what a journey it had been. 

“I think it’s easy for anybody to say that they are resilient, that they bounce back, that they have fight,” Fleetwood said. “It’s different when you actually have to prove it. There’s different types of mental strength.”

He added, “I’ve had to have mental strength in a different way. I’ve had to be resilient in terms of putting myself back up there, getting myself back in that position, no matter how many times it doesn’t go my way, no matter how many doubts might creep in. Think the right things, say the right things to yourself, say the right things outwardly, and I am really pleased that I can be proof that if you do all the right things and you just keep going that it can happen.”

Tommy and Clare, who is also the golfer’s agent, have not shied away from discussing the interest in their 23-year age gap. 

“Oh, we definitely get comments,” Tommy told The Times in January 2023. “But it’s never been a thing to us. Clare actually looks very young for her age and I look old — it’s probably all that sun. She’s incredibly cool and I’m not cool at all, though I am quite mature for my age.”