Tommy Fleetwood and wife Clare embrace their 23-year age gap, saying outside comments never bother them as she remains central to his career and life
Tommy Fleetwood and his wife Clare have both been outspoken about their 23-year age gap(Image: Getty)
Tommy Fleetwood’s remarkable PGA Tour awakening at the 2025 Tour Championship, with his landmark win at East Lake and a $10 million prize, naturally shifted the spotlight onto his family life, particularly his relationship with wife Clare, who was absent for his victory last weekend.
The couple share a significant 23-year age difference — he’s 34, she’s 57 — which, while a frequent talking point among fans and media, has never fazed them.
Fleetwood, who will immediately lose millions after his victory, recently tackled the topic head-on, admitting to The New York Times that “we definitely get comments. But it’s never been a thing to us.”
He laughed off overly concerned perspectives, saying, “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.”
On the ‘Performance People’ podcast in 2023, Clare candidly shared that she initially rejected Fleetwood’s advances, joking: “We’ve got a 23‑year age difference. Of course, I turned him down. I was like, ‘Don’t be stupid.’”
Fleetwood smiled while recalling how she eventually relented: “She just eventually gave in… I didn’t mess up.” The pair started as agent and client — Clare was Tommy’s manager — and quickly evolved into partners.
Earlier in 2025, Fleetwood reflected in The Times: “We planned to keep our life and our work separate… I wasn’t going to find anybody I’d trust as much… Clare is a very, very, very good agent by trade… So in the end, we thought, ‘We’ll just give it a go.’”
He emphasized mutual respect and boundaries, saying: “We will never let anything get in the way of our relationship—and it’s just always worked perfectly.”
Yet Clare’s absence from East Lake during the defining Tour Championship moment raised eyebrows. Despite Fleetwood floor the green with emotion, she watched from home.
IT HAPPENED! TOMMY FLEETWOOD IS A PGA TOUR WINNER! pic.twitter.com/9A5BA5NQMo
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 24, 2025
Clare had recently admitted that she sometimes feels “paranoid” about the public scrutiny surrounding their age gap — though that concern has faded over time.
Clare admitted, “It kind of is and isn’t. I mean it was way more at the beginning. It was kind of not actually 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.”
Tommy was comforted instead at the Tour Championship by his stepson Oscar, who tearfully joined him in celebration with a matching blue polo outfit.
In the aftermath of his long-awaited victory, which capped off 164 PGA Tour starts and countless near misses, Fleetwood said: “It’s easy for anybody to say that they are resilient… but it’s different when you actually have to prove it.”
