Telfer's Thoughts 25.8.25

There are occasionally rare moments in sport when an individual’s achievement in one sport triggers such an effusive reaction from every corner of the sporting world that you could almost be forgiven for thinking that the world still has the wherewithal to sound as one. Tommy Fleetwood’s win in the FedEx Cup final was one such moment.

You know you’ve done something special when superstars like Le Bron James and swimmer Michael Phelps, not to mention the likes of Tiger Woods and Caitlin Clark, are flicking you congratulatory messages from their phones.

Tommy has been one of the world’s best and clearly one of the games most popular golfers over the past couple of years but for the life of him he couldn’t nail down a victory on the USPGA Tour. He’s won 8 times on the European Tour (now the DP World Tour). He’s finished runner-up 7 times on the USPGA Tour, second in the US Open, second at the Olympic Games. All up he has 29 top 5 finishes from his previous 161 starts. Through all this heartbreak, warm-hearted Tommy has never lost his sense of humour, always immediately available for a post-round interview after another soul- destroying near miss. His humility and humour have endeared him to golfers worldwide. At a time when there has never been as much division in golfing ranks as we have now, Tommy’s win at Atlanta in the FedEx Cup final seems to have united all the factions across the golfing world, judging by the reaction to his win.

Personally all I’d like to see him do now… is get a bloody haircut!

Tommy the Pommy’s win in Atlanta has somewhat overshadowed some very good news from the camps of two of our leading golfers… Kazuma Kobori and Lydia Ko.

The performance of Kazuma Kobori at the British Masters was nothing short of extraordinary. He played the last 4 holes 5 under par which elevated him into a second-place finish and a cheque for E261,000 (around NZ$ 525,000).

His amazing finish, believe it or not, was something of a repeat from his showing earlier in the week. On Day 2 he birdied the last four holes to make the cut and put him on the road to a half a million dollar cheque.

He now stands 23rd on the Race to Dubai rankings. The DP Championship final in Dubai in November is the equivalent of the FedEx Cup where only the top 70 performers from the year are eligible to play in this super rich final in the desert.

It now seems certain that both our regular Kiwis on the DP World Tour, Kobori and Daniel Hillier, will play in this event.

And just to top off a fairly memorable weekend for the Kobori family, Kazuma’s sister, Momoka, who is carving out a successful career on the Ladies European Tour, finished 8th in the most recent event, The Hills Open.

Meanwhile Lydia Ko rediscovered some of her best form, notably missing from her game over the past 3-4 months. Lydia posted rounds of 68 and 67 over the weekend to finish in a tie for 5th place in the Canadian Open in Ontario which was won by Canada’s most popular female golfer, Brooke Henderson, her first win on the LPGA for two and a half years.