home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

DUBAI OPEN


December 16, 2014


Tommy Fleetwood


DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Q.  Talk about being here for the first DUBAi Open, you must be feeling excited about being here?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  Well, yeah, really good.  It's nice to have the opportunity to come and play.  It's the end of a long here but it's great to be able to finish the year in Dubai.  There's not many better places you can be than here. 
I've never played the course before, so we are going to go and play a few now and see what it's like.  Got some really good players here this week, so it's nice.

Q.  And coming in off a great run in Thailand last week, as well.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  I played some really good stuff last week and some really poor but managed to get it around.  Obviously it was good to play with Lee who eventually won it.  I played with him for the weekend actually.  He played really well on the last day, bogeyed the first two.
And it was a great sort of learning experience for me to watch him go about his business when after two holes, you thought he was completely out of it, and then he came back and ends up winning it.  Really good for me to get that experience for the weekends and obviously I played some really good golf.  So hopefully coming into this week, I can keep that going.

Q.  And this puts you into contention for Top‑50?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  Yeah, I was trying to do it last week, so got one more week to do it.  This is the last event of the whole year of any tour, isn't it.  So just need a good result this week.  It's keeping me occupied, anyway, trying to get into that Top‑50.  But it would be great to do it this week, yeah.

Q.  Have you done the maths?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  I keep hearing people give me all sort of answers, so I don't actually know what I have to do.  I need to  ‑‑ at the end of the day, you've just got to try and win the tournament, haven't you, and play the best you can.  I've got a rough idea of what I need to do but it's trying to keep that to the back of my mind is going to be the important thing.

Q.  Is it seventh or better?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  It's around 11th or better.  Like I say, the hard thing is just trying to keep it out of my head and just play golf like I normally would.  So we'll see how well I can cope with that this week.

Q.  The Top‑50 would get you into the Masters.  How big apprise is that for you?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  I think one of the main things is that at the start of the year, a goal was to finish in the Top‑50 of the world and it's came down to the last event, hasn't it.  That was a massive goal for me at the start of the year and I said I wanted to finish the year in the Top‑50 and obviously got a chance to do it.
I actually went to the Masters to watch this year.  Again, I have to learn and see it and see what it's about.  It would be great if I could‑‑ obviously having to watch it the year before, if I could be playing the next year, it would be really good.  It's obviously a massive target.  So hopefully this week can secure it.

Q.  Never played here before; does that affect your confidence at all?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  No.  We go to places all the time where we haven't played.  I think as long as you do the preparation right and get a good look at the golf course you'll be fine.  I know Darren Clarke played it yesterday and he said it was playing long and tough.
It will be good to get out there and see what it's like and to play it.  A lot of other players here this week and you have to play well to have any chance of contending in the tournament.  Yeah, I'm looking forward to playing.

Q.  What do you get most from playing with Lee last week?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  Well, I enjoyed it, because we became actually quite good friends the more we've hung around together this year.  But I think just the way he went about it on Sunday.  He bogeyed the first two holes and at that point you think‑‑ I know it's early on in the round but you think that's it, you would do well to finish Top‑5 but he just got on a run.
He seemed to stay so calm, and especially the way he came down the stretch, 16, 17, 18, he played the holes really well, and I think that's just stuff that you can't go on the practise ground and practise it, can you.
It's just invaluable lessons you can learn off a guy like that.  I mean, he's won 41 tournaments around the world or something like that, and just watching him do it is massive experience and not many people get to see that.

Q.  Would that inspire you if you find yourself in a similar situation?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD:  I walked off obviously disappointed that I didn't do better.  I felt I played well enough the last day to sort of at least give myself a better chance than what I did.  I did end up losing by three and that felt like a big difference.  Felt like I played well but unfortunately didn't hole the putts.
Definitely I think the next time I'm in contention, I'll take something from the way he was, how calm he was and the way he kept his down and focusing on what he was doing and got the job done.  He was really impressive to watch.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297