Tommy Fleetwood to skip this year's Scottish Open due to schedule change

Despite producing his best performance of the season in the 2020 edition, Tommy Fleetwood is set to skip this year’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.

Tommy Fleetwood in action in the pro-am event prior to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

The world No 19, who lost in a play-off to fellow Englishman Aaron Rai at the East Lothian venue in last year’s re-arranged September staging, has decided to adopt a different approach to scheduling around the majors this season.

That means he will sit out the Scottish Open the week before the 149th Open Championship at Royal St George’s in mid-July.

“I'm trying to have a week off before every major and then play the week before that,” said Fleetwood, speaking as he prepared for this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. “I feel like that's a good run into the events for me.

“It's difficult as you have so many great events in the summer and I clearly enjoyed The Renaissance as well, playing great there.

“Staying on site was amazing and, you know, it was actually my best event of the year.

“So, if the Scottish Open was two weeks before and the Irish Open was the week before, it would be the other way around, but I am playing the Irish Open.”

The newly-turned 30-year-old added: “I didn't really look at the schedule and go, oh, I love these courses or I want to play here or I want to do that.

“No matter how you choose to do it, you just have to back yourself to play well every week that you play.

"I've done it that way this year, and we'll see how that goes. It's down to me, really.”

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.