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How A $154,000 Check Went To The Wrong Tommy Fleetwood

Rick Arnett /

Tommy Fleetwood earned $154,000 for his T-12 finish at the Open Championship. Nice right? Well, yeah unless it was incorrectly deposited by the Euro Tour’s accounts department to the wrong Tommy Fleetwood.

GolfDigest’s Stephen Hennessey has the crazy details including how everyone was alerted to the six-fig mistake.

Thanks to a tweet from the user @GregThornerGolf, who is a golf instructor in New England, he alerted us to the fact that his friend, who is apparently also named Tommy Fleetwood, received the 29-year-old Englishman’s payout from his T-12 showing at Carnoustie.


We didn’t know whether to believe this at first—so we went to the source. Tommy’s wife, Clare, confirmed in an email to Golf Digest that this situation, is, in fact, true. And the golfer’s team is now dealing with getting the funds back.

How could the winnings from the Open Championship have found their way into a random guy’s bank account? We don’t have an answer to that. And apparently neither does Fleetwood’s team. As Fleetwood’s wife described to us: A “huge clerical error by the European tour accounts department.” [sik] We’d have to agree! Any amount of money would be a lot. But more than $154,000? That’s a ton of money, even if you’re an elite tour player like Fleetwood.

Imagine if this was, say, Francesco Molinari’s $1.89 million for winning at Carnoustie? Or Brooks Koepka’s $2.16 million? Hell, the next FedEx Cup winner, who will take home more than $10 million?

Golf.com’s Sean Zak talks to the alt-TF about what it was like having the surprising $154K for a brief moment.

“It just said, ‘Wire Transfer,’ so I had no clue what in the world it was.”

As a PGA teaching pro and a caddie at Streamsong Resort, he’s not exactly in the business of wiring funds. On Saturday morning, that notification had six figures attached to it. Thomas’s checking account was $154,480 richer.

That’s a stunning sum for most Tom Fleetwoods out there (there are more than you’d think), but it’s no big deal for the 11th-ranked player in the world, better known as Tommy, who tied for 12th at the British Open just 17 days ago.

“I’m a pretty laid-back guy,” Thomas said. “Most people would be jumping up and down. I was like, ‘Meh.’”

Fully intent on rectifying the mistake he labeled “humorous,” Thomas told some friends about it. It got his mother all excited. Over the weekend it was funny for him just to think about, or to glance at his Wells Fargo mobile app. He’d take care of redirecting the funds during the week.

As is the life of a teaching pro and caddie, Thomas was too busy to make a bank trip Monday. Tuesday was his day off and he simply forgot to visit the bank, adding a bit of context to his “meh” comment. Only on Wednesday morning did he receive a reminder via an ominous email from the tour.

“It just said, ‘Wrong deposit, please send it back. Here’s the information to send it back,’” Thomas said. “I emailed them back and I said, ‘Well, I plan on sending it back, but you’ve got to excuse me that I’m not going to send it to this thing you’re sending me randomly in email. But it will be sent back.”

“It’d be nicer if he had won The Open,” Thomas said, making himself laugh. “I’d like to see $1.7 million in my bank account.”

“I’m poor again,” he said laughing. His duty was simple, and as of 5 p.m., it was done. It just wasn’t completely settled.

 

direct deposit European Tour mixed up identity Open Championship paychecks Tommy Fleetwood