Tommy Fleetwood: I can relate to feeling of England players after Euro 2020 near-miss

Tommy Fleetwood. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA

Tommy Fleetwood, runner-up to Shane Lowry at the 2019 Open Championship in Portrush, has admitted he can personally "relate" to the devastation of England's Euro 2020 players following their final defeat to Italy.

Fleetwood went head-to-head with Lowry at Royal Portrush and finished up four shots behind the Clara man, his third near-miss in a major having also contended strongly at the 2017 and 2018 US Opens.

The world number 35, and home-hope at this week's Open in Kent, said he feels in particular for Arsenal wonderkid Bukayo Saka, the last of three English players who missed penalties against Italy.

"I know what it feels like to come very, very close to your dream and not achieve it, so I sort of can relate to what the guys are feeling in a way, just without the added nation that's behind them," said Fleetwood.

"We're a very individual sport and quite a different fan base. It's much more important how those guys are allowed to heal or deal with their disappointment and deal with it together and then get over it to then push on in their careers.

"Saka is a 19-year-old kid. He's got an amazing career in front of him if he's allowed to blossom and create his own path and everything. I felt for them and I was obviously gutted as a fan but it's much more hurtful for those guys and important that they can move on and become the players that they can be and I do think England have a very big future in football."

A week on from England's Wembley heartache, Fleetwood's hope is to lift the nation next Sunday evening by becoming the first Englishman to win the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992. The last English golfer to actually win the Open on English soil was Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1969.

"I think it's just an amazing opportunity," said Fleetwood. "It's very, very special. I've said it many times that for me personally, there's three Opens; there's Birkdale, there's Hoylake, there's Royal Lytham that I could have the chance of playing them all and they're all within 30, 40 minutes of where I grew up.

"People go their whole lives without playing any kind of event that close to home and there's three chances there of the biggest event in the world being that close for me.

"It's very special for me. I completely see it as an opportunity. It's nerve-racking, yeah, it's like a different element to the event but I love it. I really, really do. It's always going to be my home event. The one time I was in the final group (at Royal Portrush) was probably the one time I won't have the crowd on my side, which was slightly different."