Tommy Fleetwood's Wife Was 'Paranoid' About Major Age Gap

The Masters sits just a few hours away as the best golfers in the world take to Augusta National Golf Club in an effort to win the first major title of the year.

Familiar favorites like Scottie Scheffler, 2025 champion Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm headline the field, but another fan favorite remains in the hunt. Tommy Fleetwood is among the best golfers in the world right now and one of the best golfers to never win a major title.

As Fleetwood gets ready to compete in another major, his relationship with wife Clare is back in the headlines. The two share a 23-year age gap, which she admitted to being "paranoid" about at first.

Tommy Fleetwood's Wife Clare Was 'Paranoid' Over 23-Year Age Gap

During a conversation with Performance People podcast, Fleetwood's wife admitted the couple doesn't really think about the age gap, but she was "paranoid" after news of their relationship broke in the golf world.

"It kind of is and isn't [a thing they think about]. I mean it was way more at the beginning," she said. "It was kind of not actually [a thing] for us, but it was just again thinking what other people are thinking about all the time and within the industry."

"It was kind of big news in our circle, so I was a little bit paranoid about all that, really. But not for any reason of our relationship, and I had full faith once we fell in love, I knew that that’s it. Baby and dog yeah, we were in. Then it was just navigating through the gossip, basically."

She revealed the questions around the relationship dissipated once people saw the genuine nature.

"But that was quick. People saw us and knew it meant something," she said. "The people who were the doubters have redeemed themselves, let’s say, and admitted they doubted wrongly."

Tommy Fleetwood's Wife Initially Turned Him Down

The couple first met in 2015 when she was attempting to woo Fleetwood as a potential manager. Initially, though, Fleetwood was turned down due to the age difference.

“We’ve got a 23-year age difference. Of course, I turned him down. I was like, ‘Don’t be stupid,'” she joked.

Eventually the two started spending more time together and sparked the beginnings of their romantic relationship.

“We were always on similar flights to or from Manchester airport, sat next to each other for hours, so we became friends,” he told The Times. “ ... We spent more and more time together and it just so happens we fell in love.”

How long did that take? “Not long, just months. We already had such a strong connection and the extra time spent together just tipped us over the edge.”

After initially planning to keep their work life and home life separate, their chemistry in business and home life couldn't be stopped.

"We planned to keep our life and our work separate, for me to find another agent," Fleetwood admitted.

"But it became more apparent I wasn’t going to find anybody I’d trust as much because, after all, Clare is a very, very, very good agent by trade; it wasn’t like she was my wife just helping the family out. So in the end we thought, ‘We’ll just give it a go, but we will never let anything get in the way of our relationship,’ and it’s just always worked perfectly."

Tommy Fleetwood, Wife Clare 'Get Comments' on Age Gap

Fleetwood admitted the couple “gets comments” but neither are bothered.

“Oh, we definitely get comments. But it’s never been a thing to us. Clare actually looks very young for her age and I look old — it’s probably all that sun. She’s incredibly cool and I’m not cool at all, though I am quite mature for my age.”

Fleetwood is set to tee off in the first round of the Masters at 9:55 a.m. ET alongside former Masters champion Patrick Reed and lefty Akshay Bhatia.

The fan favorite golfer hasn't missed the cut at the Masters since his first appearance and has a career best finish of T-3 in 2024.

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