Fleetwood Reveals Dream 'To Captain A Ryder Cup In The North West'

Tommy Fleetwood is working with the bid to build a Ryder Cup course in Bolton, where he'd love to achieve his dream of captaining Europe on home turf

Tommy Fleetwood after his winning putt in the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Tommy Fleetwood says it is "absolutely a dream" of his to be a Ryder Cup captain one day - and even more so if it's at one staged near his home in the north west of England.

Fresh from a stunning Ryder Cup victory in Rome, Fleetwood is playing at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland this week, where he was asked about his future ambitions.

The Englishman says he's been working with the £240m project at Hulton Park in Bolton, where plans are in place to build a golf course to bid for staging the Ryder Cup in 2031 or 2035.

And the prospect of the Ryder Cup being brought to near his neck of the woods is an enticing prospect for Fleetwood, who would love to be a hometown captain.

"I've had the opportunity to be a bit closer to a project that's going on at Hulton Park in greater Manchester in the northwest, which is always going to be something that's very close to my heart, and the possibility of having a Ryder Cup venue there was clearly something I was very interested in and what that can bring to the area," said Fleetwood.

"It would be a dream. I've played three Ryder Cups now and hopefully I'm going to play a lot more. And honestly, there's nothing quite like playing a Ryder Cup at home in Europe.

"It's very, very cool. I've never had the experience to play one in England, let alone the opportunity to play one from where I'm from in the northwest.

"Being involved in a project like that is very cool for me and what it can - the opportunities that it will bring not just for golf but anyone.

"Jobs, housing around the area, I think it's much, much needed, and along with that, growing the game and introducing more people to the game that are from my area will be great. We'll see how it goes."

A CGI image of the proposed Ryder Cup at Hulton Park

A CGI image of the proposed Ryder Cup at Hulton Park

(Image credit: Peel L&P)

Fleetwood does not shy away from the fact that he'd love to become European captain one day - and as he'd be either 40 or 44 by the time the Ryder Cup possibly came to England the timelines could meet perfectly.

"Absolutely a dream of mine would be to captain a Ryder Cup Team," he added.

"It's a long way away to play in a Ryder Cup in the northwest. To captain a Ryder Cup in the northwest, would be amazing, so just any role that I can play in that, just being a part of that bid, supporting the area, being a boy from the northwest of England and everything that we believe that it can bring, it's very, very special to me.

"On top of that, the opportunity to play a role as a player or a captain or a vice-captain or any way of me being in that Ryder Cup would be just the icing on the cake and unbelievably special.

"Looking at the captains that I've played under and the figures that they are, the inspiration that they brought to us all as players, if I could live up to half as much as they managed to accomplish in their careers but also as captains, I'll be very proud of myself to think that I can do that."

Hulton Park faces competition from Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire to be the English bid for the Ryder Cup, while they both face reported competition from PGA Catalunya in Spain.

Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.