Tommy Fleetwood’s performances have been flying under the radar so far this season.
After finishing the 2025 season with a Tour Championship victory, his first on the PGA Tour, Fleetwood has followed up with a consistently solid run of results. He has three top 10 finishes in 2026 at The Players, Pebble Beach and Riviera.
He hasn’t yet troubled the top of the leaderboard, but playing so well at difficult golf courses puts him in a great position ahead of the year’s first major.
But the Englishman isn’t quite happy with one key aspect of his game, and it might hold him back from contending at The Masters.
Tommy Fleetwood says putting has been ‘disappointing’ so far this season
Fleetwood’s ball striking has been in fine form in 2026, but that’s been completely nullified by his performances on the green. He’s made some minor changes to the appearance of his putter in the hopes that it will lock his eye in for Augusta. Fleetwood has swapped a line drawn in Sharpie for some dots as a visual aid.
Speaking before the Texas Open, he was asked what changes he’s made to his TaylorMade Spider X putter, and he said, “Spider head that I will be using is just the same head that I’ve used for a while now, almost a year.
“Just a different visual on top. Look, I actually haven’t putted very well this year. It’s been one of the sort of more disappointing ways that I’ve started the year. I haven’t played how I wanted to, and sometimes it’s nothing more to it than you just need something different to look at, like a slightly different visual or something, just to change up your mindset a little bit.
“So that’s why I changed the sightlines. That new Spider, beautiful putter. So I used to try the hundreds of different putters, but I used like the same putter for about eight years. I tried less putters over the last year, but I still enjoy just tinkering because you never know what you’re going to find, even if it just makes you feel better about your putter.
“I just like hitting different putters. Who knows, it might be something that I put in at some point. It’s a nice other option. Yeah, it’s always good to test stuff.”
He has one more week to find his form on the green, so this is an important week for Fleetwood.
Tommy Fleetwood reacts to being the tournament favourite at the Texas Open
In a strong field at the Texas Open, Fleetwood enters the event as the tournament favourite over the likes of Ludvig Aberg and Sepp Straka.
Speaking before the tournament, the world number four shared how it feels to be expected to win before teeing off: “Yeah, well, that’s nice. Anytime there’s something like that, you should only like reflect on it as a positive thing and something enjoyable.
“I’ve played plenty of tournaments where I’ve been really, really struggling with my game or down in the rankings or fighting for something. So when you’re at the higher end, you have to make sure you enjoy it.
“You don’t know how long that’s going to last. Hopefully, it lasts a long time and I can keep improving. That’s a really nice feeling and I think a nice reflection of the work that we’ve done, and as John touched on before, the consistency of golf that I played for a while now. Excited to get going.
“All of those things as well, I’m very, very aware it has no impact on as soon as I pick up a golf club on Thursday morning, like the clubs and the ball are no different so it has no impact on how you’re going to play. Going through that process and working hard and then preparing for this week and going out there and hopefully having a great week are the most important things.”
Fleetwood’s endlessly positive outlook is enviable for all of us, and it could serve him well as he looks to manage expectations in San Antonio.
