	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE HONDA CLASSIC

February 29, 2020

Tommy Fleetwood

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Q. What a day out there. You were warming up out there, just trying to keep the hat on, and you get out there and trying to keep par in front of you the whole day?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, par is your friend out there. Doesn't matter what holes they are. No matter what's going on on the leaderboard, you have to know that par is a very, very good score, and just keep playing. It helps in a way because you know no matter what you're going to have to commit to the next one, but just tough out there, and happened to not make a double the last couple days.

Q. Looked like you were absolutely flushing the putter to get hot this afternoon?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I would say, yeah, that was one thing. I think yesterday I finished with a couple of three-putts in the last three holes, which affected my overall -- how my putting looked, but I felt like I've been holing out perfectly fine, but the mid-rangers had kind of helped me hang in there. Yeah, they started going in on the back nine today, and happy for that. I'll take them when they come.

Q. You've had success here. You're obviously in a great position for tomorrow. It's a hard golf course. What do you like about the golf course?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: That's what golf should be at times. These are the best players in the world, and to win you should have to play the best golf. You ask me or anybody else, I like the fact that that's how it is, that that's how it'll play out.

Q. Obviously a great round in tough conditions. Can you just talk about the round today?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, very, very tough on a day that I didn't particularly start off by hitting it great. Made some nice pars. It was a bit of a grind, and one thing you have to realize out there is par is your friend. People do make birdies out there, and it's easy to look at the leaderboard and seeing it ebb and flow, but at the end of the day if you make pars you're not doing any harm to yourself. Just managed to get it going a little bit on the back nine, and happy to see a few putts roll in.

Q. Chance to win your first PGA TOUR event. Just talk about that.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I mean, I've had chances before, and hopefully I'll continue to have chances whether it's tomorrow or not. I'll be absolutely fine with that. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and I think more than anything, I had a bit of a layoff, hadn't played loads since the end of last year, and I think coming out on such a tough golf course, and more than anything proving to yourself that your game is there in a good place and you're going to move forward from here, I'm waking up tomorrow -- sleeping tonight, I'm going to wake up tomorrow with going out there with a chance to win my first PGA TOUR event, and nothing better, I'm really excited about it.

Q. You've long been proven; you don't need tomorrow to validate yourself, but what do you think that would mean if you finally crossed that one off the list?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It would be another win. I mean, it would be a win at a great golf course, a tough golf course, and I think if you're going to win around here, you're proving yourself as an all-around golfer. And I think probably -- I mean, realistically, yeah, it probably is another step in my career, but I'm not going to lie and say, I don't really mind about winning in America. Of course I do. I want to win everywhere I play, and the PGA TOUR is for sure one of those places where I haven't done it yet.

Tomorrow is a good chance for me, and if it doesn't happen tomorrow, hopefully it'll happen again in the future. I've just got to continue to play good golf and improve and keep giving myself chances, and eventually I will get one, and hopefully, fingers crossed, plan A is to win tomorrow, but if not we'll just go to plan B and go again next week.

Q. Is it bigger winning over here? Does it feel --
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I don't think so necessarily. For sure as a whole, the TOUR and the way most of these events are run, I don't want to use the word bigger, but there's a certain, sort of -- you look at a lot of the best players in the world play out here, and when you grow up in Europe and you come over to America, it's a different style of golf, it's different faces, different people, different atmosphere when you're playing, so it's just another level of what you're used to, really.

I don't want to use the word bigger. I think there's amazing golfers everywhere in the world, and I think there's some amazing tournaments in Europe that I've won and that I've not won yet, but for sure if you look at both, I would love to be a winner, I would love to be one of those guys that wins regularly on both tours and be a world golfer, which consistently I am, but just having those wins is something that I've not quite got yet on both.

Q. On a tight leaderboard on a course where things can change really quickly, do you just focus on what you need to do?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, probably. That is a positive about how hard the golf course is. It's tough out there. At no point does the golf course let up. You never stand on the tee and think, this is okay, I can go ahead and swing away, and there's more gimme iron shots. No matter what happens, whether you make eagle all the way through to double bogey, you have to stand up on the next and hit a golf shot. Yeah, if there's one good thing about the golf course being that hard, it's that you literally to stand up and hit the next shot. That's just how it is.

Q. You said earlier that the shot of the day was a bogey at 15. Is that a reflection of how difficult it's playing?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It can be, yeah. I think the two biggest putts of the day for sure -- I holed some monsters out there, but the two biggest ones were the bogey putt on 10 when I was making a hash of it there around the green, and 15, I've strengthened a 7-iron to that back trap and I was knackered in there, I was plugged, and I almost pulled off a world of a bunker shot, and should have done better with the second one, but you look at those putts, I've holed an eight-, nine-footer there, maybe 10-footer for bogey -- double bogeys don't feel good, but that bogey felt good. You look at them holes, you're a good shot away from having a chance at 2, but you're also a bad shot away from bogey or double, and bogeys never feel too bad, and you know that you can move on and move forward still, and I think, yeah, those two putts were massive today.

Q. Is this playing as tough as a major championship this week?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Oh, yeah, a hundred percent. You won't find anyone out here that says any different probably. It's just a strong test of your all-around game. I think the wind the way it plays because it's always cross-winds, as well, you hardly ever have anything that's straight down or straight into. It's always cross-winds, so it's always challenging you to do something different with the ball. Putting is never easy, around the greens aren't easy, so it's all-around test. When you look at 5-under leading after three days, it just shows how tough it is because these players are pretty good.

Q. You've birdied 17 a couple different ways the last couple days, very wildly different ways. Did you just like the way that one looked today? Did you have a good feeling about it?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, it's difficult -- those shots on those par-3s you just want it to be like a good number. You never know, but all the way it just looked like it was going to go in, so it was a nice one to follow in.

Q. At one point on the leaderboard it was one, two, three with Englishmen. Did you notice that, and does that mean anything?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Not necessarily. I think it's good for English golf. I'm proud of my country, and I think obviously English golf is in a very strong position right now. So it doesn't -- what nationalities the players are doesn't really make a difference to what's going on, but it is always nice to see people that you're friends with or compatriots that are doing very well.

Q. You have quite a following with American golf. Why is that do you think?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I don't know, you tell me. You know, I've always been fortunate that I think I sort of naturally have a connection with people, and I've always loved coming out here, I've always loved the positivity and the noise that American golf fans bring, and I've just been lucky, like I say, I connect well with the people, and I would never want that to change really. I love the support that I have, and anytime I feel like I can give back, I like to see the kids and the make their day, and hopefully it continues, but I am very grateful for the support I get.

Q. Do you think any of it has to do with your U.S. Open a few years ago?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: You know, maybe. I think, yeah, walking down the last at Shinnecock when I had a chance for 62 was one of the finer moments of my career for sure, and I think the way the crowd reacted walking up 18 was something that was unbelievably special, and from walking to the green -- I missed the putt, and then walking from that green all the way to the scoring trailer, I had a long walk around, just the way everything was, was like very, very humbling in a way, and my wife was crying when I got there, and it was just such a lovely moment. I guess it's those moments that maybe define a point in your career that you got to, and I guess people were on my side. So it was a shame it didn't work out, but it was still a lovely moment.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297