SOUTHPORT, England -- As a boy growing up in Southport, Tommy Fleetwood and his friends snuck on the course at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, the site of this week's Open Championship.
"I did it once or twice," Fleetwood said Monday. "It wasn't like every day."
On Sunday, Fleetwood would like nothing more than to win his first major championship in the town where he grew up and learned to play golf.
An English-born golfer hasn't won The Open since Nick Faldo got his third Claret Jug in 1992.
"It's obviously very, very special," Fleetwood said. "I think for anybody that was lucky enough to grow up in the town of Southport, it's such a golfing town. The Open at Birkdale holds such a special place in the area. Yeah, it's a dream just to be competing in an Open here, so I feel very, very lucky."
The reigning FedEx Cup champion won't be playing in an Open Championship at Royal Birkdale for the first time. In 2017, he opened with a 6-over 76 and had to rally in the second round to make the cut.
Fleetwood tied for 27th at 1 over, 13 shots behind winner Jordan Spieth.
"I obviously had a bad first round," Fleetwood said. "I think my round on Friday was one of the best rounds I ever played to make the cut, and Saturday was a great experience going out so early with Justin [Rose]."
Nine years later, Fleetwood, 35, is one of the most talented golfers in the world. An 11-time winner around the world, he's ninth in the Official World Golf Ranking. He picked up his first PGA Tour victory in last year's Tour Championship.
Fleetwood will be making his 45th start in a major. He was runner-up in the 2018 U.S. Open and the 2019 Open Championship.
"There's no doubt about it, I think winning majors is kind of like the ultimate accolades in our sport," Fleetwood said. "It's a difficult one. I don't think I want to sort of look towards the future and worry about or think that I have to win a major to feel fulfilled. I think, like everyone else out here, we spend our lives giving it everything, and it might happen for me, it might not."
There's no question Fleetwood will have tens of thousands of fans cheering for him this week. There is a mural of him on the walls of the Southport & Birkdale Sports Club and another painting on the lawn of a shopping center in nearby Liverpool.
"Golf is a very individual sport, and I feel like I spend my life, as every other golfer does, chasing your goals and your dreams, and you do that sort of on a very individual basis," Fleetwood said. "I've always been very lucky with support like all around the world, but then to see people sort of very much like emotionally invested in you and showing things like that, I think it's very special. It definitely doesn't go unnoticed by me."
Though Fleetwood and his family now mostly live in Dubai, he has maintained connections to Southport. He has memberships at Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa, where he played as a junior, and Hillside Golf Club. "Every single person that is playing in The Open dreams of winning in The Open and wants to win it," Fleetwood said. "There's really nothing different to anybody else in that sense. I just think I am the lucky one that gets to have home support and use that as like really, really positive fuel."