Fleetwood right at home as the people’s choice

SOUTHPORT, England — He is the poster boy of the upcoming British Open, his flowing hair and stubbly face adorning the banners draped across lampposts on the approaches to Royal Birkdale.

Golf’s oldest major is back in Southport for the first time since 2008 and, in Fleetwood, one of the sport’s rising stars, the locals have one of their own for whom to cheer.

Growing up, Fleetwood lived in a house just around the corner from Royal Birkdale.

The place held a mystical quality to a golf-loving kid who dreamed of winning the Open Championship from the age of 5.

The first British Open he went to watch was at Royal Birkdale in 1998.

Fleetwood is at his highest-ever world ranking of No. 14 and is the No. 1 player on the European Tour after winning in Abu Dhabi and France this year.

To a former coach and mentor, Fleetwood is not just a sentimental pick this week but a logical one.

Fleetwood was 11 — with a handicap of 11 and already hitting the ball 230 yards — when he was voted as junior sports personality of the year at a ceremony in nearby Sefton.

Peter Fleetwood said at the time that the costs of his son’s early golfing career “will all come back the day Tommy wins the Open.”

How fitting if he achieved that at Birkdale and became the first Englishman to win an Open in England since Tony Jacklin in 1969 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

Royal Birkdale (7,156 yards, par 70)