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Golf: Keep smiling, Fleetwood

Sometimes, when things aren't going right for you, the least you could do is smile. And get on with it.
And that seemed to have worked wonders for Tommy Fleetwood. Down to earth and one of the most liked men on the European Tour, there was an even bigger smile plastered on the Englishman's face after he won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on Sunday, just four days after celebrating his 26th birthday.

Going into the week, he and his caddie Ian Finnis had put down small little targets, and one of them was to smile. And little did Fleetwood know that he would be left smiling at the end of it all, after ending a long drought to win his second event on the European Tour.
It took 94 events on the Tour, for that big smile to be back, so to speak. His maiden victory on Tour came in 2013 at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
This was his sixth appearance in Abu Dhabi with his previous best being tied 19th in 2014 and this was his second consecutive top three finish this season after he was tied third at the UBS Hong Kong Open.
"I felt good and I felt kind of relaxed. I felt fine all week, really. Coming down the stretch, your heart rate starts getting up but before that, and I still enjoyed it, really," Fleetwood said after holding aloft the Falcon Trophy.
"The more you enjoy it and the more you smile, and I have little goals every week, really. Ian and me make little goals, and one of them this week was to smile. So it worked. I'm going to put it in next week now. But yeah, the more you have a good time, the better things are going to be. It's obvious, but it's hard to do when things aren't going great," he added.
Fleetwood had hoped that his second win would have come earlier but was glad to finally get another. And he revealed that his reunion with Finnis, one of his best mates for 15 years, is paying dividends.
"It's been a massive comeback. I made it up to Finn, who has been caddying for me. We made the switch and not a lot of people thought it would work, and proved them all wrong. It feels great," said Fleetwood.
Summing up his career so far, he said: It has been hot and cold. I had a really good hard time from July 2015 to July last year where I really struggled with my game. It's been an awkward curve. The only thing left was let's get a win, but you know, you keep knocking on the door, it would come. I didn't really think it would be this week. Just shows a lot can happen in golf," he concluded.
james@khaleejtimes.com