Tommy Fleetwood claims he regularly has to deal with ‘the look’ when people discover the age of his step-children, but the 32-year-old still feels ‘unbelievably lucky’ to have a relationship as good as he does with them and his wife.
Fleetwood met Clare Craig back in 2015 when she approached him about being his agent. The pair were married two years later, but only after Clare turned the golf star down multiple times due to their 23-year age gap.
Becoming part of a family which included two of Clare’s children from a previous relationship, Fleetwood is now the stepfather to 17-year-old Oscar and 16-year-old Mo, while he and his partner also have a six-year-old son, Frankie.
The world No.13, who is preparing to bid for major glory at the US Open later this week, claims the age differences in his family often raise eyebrows but he, Clare and the three children are a tight-knit group.
“The whole family – we’re unbelievably close,” Fleetwood told Barstool Sports’ podcast, Fore Play. “There’s Oscar and Mo and they are the two older ones and then there’s Frankie.
“And, you know, honestly, it’s funny because whenever anybody asks, so people that don’t know you they’ll always say, ‘Do you have kids?’ And, pretty much all the time I’ll say ‘yeah, I have three kids’ and they’ll go, ‘How old are they?’ And I’ll say ’17, 16 and six’. And then you get the look.
“So then, I’m like, well I’m not that old, so then I’ll have to explain that the first two are step-kids which, honestly, I don’t really, I never really think of them as step-kids. I’ve been around them a long time now.
“Particularly Mo, I think I’ve been a, I guess, a parental figure to Mo since he was five. I’m unbelievably lucky with the relationship that we have. We’re so close. When the five of us are together that’s always our safe space and I hope we always keep that.”
Earlier this year, Fleetwood took up the role of caddy for his stepson Oscar’s debut on the Challenge Tour. The teenager is planning to take a gap year before deciding whether to pursue a career in professional golf.
Fleetwood believes Oscar has ‘the tools’ to succeed and paid tribute to him for making the cut on the Challenge Tour with an emotional Instagram post, writing: “Golf is great!!!”
