Tommy Fleetwood subjected to cruel comments after wife opened up about age-gap relationship

Tommy Fleetwood is set to compete at The Open at Royal Birkdale this weekend

Golf star Tommy Fleetwood has been forced to deal with jibes and scrutiny over the 23-year age gap with his wife, Clare, since they got together. The Southport-born player will be competing on home turf at the Open this weekend.

The Royal Birkdale-hosted tournament kicks off on Thursday and wraps up on Sunday. Fleetwood has been in exceptional form throughout the past year, securing his maiden PGA Tour victory. Next on his agenda is claiming a major title.

While his golfing excellence has captured attention, it’s his partnership with Clare that has prompted remarks from certain golf fans – and not all of them complimentary. The duo met when Fleetwood, 35, was making his mark as a professional golfer and Clare, 58, took on the role of his manager.

Their relationship subsequently developed and they wed in 2017 in the Bahamas. The pair share one son, Franklin, while Fleetwood is also stepfather to Clare’s two sons from an earlier relationship.

Yet Fleetwood encountered harsh taunts from spectators at the New York-hosted Ryder Cup last year, while Clare has also disclosed her ‘paranoia’ regarding their age difference.

In September 2025, Fleetwood withstood such comments as: “Your wife looks like my grandmother,” as the American supporters attempted to unsettle the Englishman. Their efforts proved futile as Europe claimed victory in the competition, with Fleetwood delivering a crucial contribution.

Their age gap, while grist for the gossip mill and a source of frustration for some golf fans, doesn’t bother Fleetwood or Clare in the slightest. “I tell my kids all the time the biggest life skill you can have is finding a great woman,” Tommy told The Times in 2023, adding: “And I did manage that.”

Clare, meanwhile, has addressed the age difference and her initial reservations. “We’ve got a 23-year age difference,” she said on a 2023 episode of the Performance People podcast.

Opening up about how she originally rejected Fleetwood’s advances, she said: “Of course I turned him down. I was like, ‘Don’t be stupid.’

“The age gap was big news in our circle, so I was a little bit paranoid about what other people were thinking all the time. But once we fell in love, that’s it. We were in. People saw us and knew it meant something.

“And then it was just navigating through the gossip, basically. And the people who were the doubters have redeemed themselves and admitted they doubted wrongly.”

Reflecting on his relationship and wider family on Fore Play, a Barstool Sports podcast, Fleetwood said: “The whole family – we’re unbelievably close. 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.”