A clerical slip-up by the European Tour once sent Tommy Fleetwood's Open Championship prize money — £120,000, worth $154,480 at the time and closer to $161K at today's exchange rate — straight into the bank account of an American club pro who happened to share his exact name.

It sounds strange, but it actually happened. Back in 2018, Fleetwood tied for 12th at the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie, good for a payday of £120,000.

Days later, when he went looking for the money in his account, it wasn't there. It hadn't vanished — it had simply gone to the wrong Tommy Fleetwood.

That Tommy Fleetwood was a 58-year-old teaching pro and caddie from Clermont, Florida, who noticed an odd wire transfer land in his Wells Fargo account on a Friday night with no explanation attached. By Saturday morning, his checking account was $154,480 richer.

He didn't rush to fix it. Banks aren't open on weekends, and by his own admission he's not the type to panic over good news, even when it's not really his.

It took until the following Wednesday — nearly a week after the money first appeared — for things to unwind. That's when Florida-based golf school owner Greg Thorner posted a screenshot of the account summary to Twitter, and the story took off.

"I told him he should keep it," Thorner told USA TODAY Sports, per GolfDigest, adding that his friend wasn't interested in the idea and called the bank instead.

The American Fleetwood had a simple explanation for what happened.

"It was an honest mistake," he told Reuters. "I tried to get on their senior tour, so they have my [bank] information."

The real Tommy Fleetwood, for his part, treated the whole thing as exactly what it was: bizarre, but ultimately harmless. Speaking to media, he brushed off any suggestion of frustration.

"It looks pretty genuine," he said, per walesonline.co.uk. "They [the European Tour] are looking into it and I'm sure they'll feel pretty bad about it. It's a funny story. It's just something I don't really look at but I'll get on top of that."

The European Tour later apologized to him.

Eight Years Later, Fleetwood Is Chasing Something the Bank Error Can't Touch

It's been eight years since that banking mix-up, and the real Tommy Fleetwood has spent most of them establishing himself as one of the best players in the world without ever winning a major.

He's been runner-up at the U.S. Open. He's been runner-up at The Open. He's carded two of the lowest final rounds in U.S. Open history. But what he hasn't done is put his name on a major trophy..

This week, the sport's oldest championship has come back to the one course that means more to him than any other. The world No. 9 is playing the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale — the course where he grew up sneaking on with his father as a kid.

If anyone needed proof that Birkdale has a way of bringing out something in him, it's already on the record. The last time the Open visited Southport in 2017, Fleetwood opened with a 76 that nearly ended his week before it started.

He then played a second-round 69 in miserable weather and survived the cutline, his first Open Championship cut.

Nine years on, the story so far has been steadier. Fleetwood opened this year's Open with a one-under 69, and followed it with rounds of 67 and 69 to reach tied ninth at 4-under.

He now goes into Sunday six shots behind leader Sam Burns, and needs a historic comeback to lift his final major title at home.

Read more at Club Golf!

Written by

Md Saife Fida