The current world number 23 opened the academy after winning his sixth DP World Tour title at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa last week.
It will be the second Fleetwood academy, with the first opening in 2019 at the four-star Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa in Southport, England, where Fleetwood learnt the game.
The success of that academy led to Fleetwood, DP World and Jumeirah Golf Estates joining forces to expand in to the United Arab Emirates, a destination the golfer now calls home.
Fleetwood said: “This is something that is very special to me being able to open the second Tommy Fleetwood Academy. An amazing opportunity with DP World and Jumeriah Golf Estates to try to bring the game to as many new faces as possible and help people progress and push themselves with the game of golf.”
Jumeirah Golf Estates is a luxury residential golf community in Dubai, home to two Greg Norman-designed 18-hole golf courses – Fire and Earth. The Earth Course is the host venue for the DP World Tour Championship, the season-ending tournament on the DP World Tour.
DP World, the Dubai-based logistics company, has been associated with golf’s European Tour since 2009, with the season-ending tournament renamed the DP World Tour Championship in 2012. At the start of the 2022 season, the European Tour became known as the DP World Tour.
The 31-year-old added: “DP World are definitely looking at growing the game a lot more at grass roots in the UAE and we just happened to have a conversation about it and it just became this very exciting opportunity that the second academy could bring the beliefs that I have to the game to the UAE.
“Let’s start at the grass roots and lets grow the game a bit more. Let’s get people excited about the game of golf, let’s get them enjoying it, let’s get them bringing their creativity out and let’s see how far we can take everyone.
“The teams I have at the academies are just an amazing bunch of people that are going to spend their days bringing that enthusiasm and bring their knowledge to everyone as well. It’s just an exciting time and an amazing opportunity for everyone”.
The Tommy Fleetwood Academy at Formby Hall has access to the resort’s 18-hole championship course and nine-hole option. The academy offers a structured programme for junior golfers of all abilities. The programme is designed to give children aged from 4-16 a solid introduction to golf, from beginner through to international competitive level.
The programme is delivered by Head Professional Norman Marshall who was Fleetwood’s first coach. There’s open days during the summer holidays and play golf camps, and performance camps which are aimed at competitive junior golfers, with statistical and video analysis used by Fleetwood himself. There’s also golf tournaments for academy attendees.
