Why Tommy Fleetwood Should Be Nominated For SPOTY

Sam Tremlett looks at why Tommy Fleetwood has been snubbed from the Sports Personality shortlist, and says the format needs to change.

Why Tommy Fleetwood Should Be Nominated For SPOTY

Tommy Fleetwood should be on the shortlist of nominees for Sports Personality of the year, this is a fact.

Golfers, especially Brits, do not get the respect they deserve because the vast majority of people do not view golf as a sport, and even then many don't understand how difficult the sport is.

That being said, there have been a surprising number of golf nominees over the years and golfers have claimed two victories. Considering the sport is not as popular as others, this is fairly respectable.

The problem for golfers in regards to Sports Personality, is that they pretty much need to dominate the sport or win one of the four Major Championships to just get nominated, and obviously this is extremely difficult to do.

Compare this to the 2017 nomination of Harry Kane who did not win a thing aside from the Premier league Golden Boot, and its easy to see how Fleetwood and other golfers have been snubbed in 2017, and years gone by.

Some of the golfers nominated include:

Dai Rees, winner in 1957, became a British celebrity after guiding the Ryder Cup team to its first victory over the Americans since 1933.

Nick Faldo won SPOTY in 1989, becoming just the second golfer ever to do so, after winning the Masters in a playoff against Scott Hoch.

Lee Westwood and Luke Donald had to rise up the World golf rankings to number one to get nominated in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Danny Willett last year, Justin Rose in 2013, Darren Clarke in 2011, and Graeme McDowell in 2010, all had to win Majors to even get a look in and even then they never really came close to winning the award.

Rory McIlroy, in recent memory, has come the closest to winning the award in 2014 when he won the Open, USPGA, BMW PGA Championship, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and helped Europe retain the Ryder Cup. The fact he didn't win after that year is astonishing.

Clearly, all of this has had an effect on the nomination, or lack of, of Englishman Tommy Fleetwood which is frustrating because he should have been nominated considering the year he has had.

Winner of the Race to Dubai, and twice winner on the European Tour at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, and the HNA Open de France, his consistency throughout the season was the main reason he was able to collect the Harry Vardon trophy for the European Order of Merit.

Additionally, he had a fourth place at the US Open and second place at the WGC-Mexico Championship. He got to world number 14, and is ranked number 18 right now. His ranking does not sound that impressive but considering how competitive men's golf is at the moment, this achievement deserves great respect.

When you look at some of the other golfers nominated it is not hard to see why Fleetwood has been snubbed, but this shouldn't be the case.

But, golfers on the whole, are not given the respect they deserve when the nomination process is taking place, which raises the question, why is there even a shortlist for nominations? Why cant we just let the people vote for whoever they want?

The winners of every Sports Personality would be the same, but the competitors in lesser sports would get votes too, thereby giving them the recognition they deserve for their achievements.

This change in format would undoubtedly lead to golfers like Fleetwood getting more votes because the public would actually be able to vote for him.

Instead of getting snubbed, the Race to Dubai winner, and the whole sport of golf would get more publicity which is only a good thing.

For more articles on golf and other sports written by Sam Tremlett, visit his blog tremlettonsport.wordpress.com

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