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COMMERCIAL BANK QATAR MASTERS

January 29, 2016

Tommy Fleetwood

Doha, Qatar

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It was tough. But you know, you've just got to get on with it. I had my ball a bit more under control than I did yesterday, and yeah, happy with my finish. But up until then -- you never know what's a good score, really, and I just had to keep going and then you've always got those last few holes when you play downwind, and I made the most of them.

Q. Presumably you were conscious that you weren't drifting back. You were still nicely in there with a good finish.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, kind of knew, yeah, but you're not quite sure, you can only see the top few on the leaderboard, so you don't know what everybody else is doing. But yeah, I just wanted to, hang in there, and obviously 15 was a bit annoying, because I had a really good putt on the hole before -- but still, careless 3-putt. And then good finish, like you say, and all of a sudden you go from amongst the pack to being right up there.

Q. It's been breezy all week, but is it just tougher today?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: In a sense, yeah, a couple of the tees are further back. Yeah, it was probably a tad tougher. You get to the weekend and obviously things get tougher and the leaderboard starts to spread out a little bit more at the top. When you're playing, you're never quite sure what a good score is.

Par is generally good today. That's kind of what my feeling was. So stayed patient and as long as you keep ticking over and you're making pars and you're not doing anything stupid and moving backwards, you should be all right.

Q. Does your approach, your mentality change, now that you're finding yourself in the heat of battle for the final day?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, not really. Try and do the best I can. It's been a long time since I've been in the heat of battles, and I love it. This is what I want to do, but no, there's not much that can change, really. If the weather stays the same, you can't attack and you can't sort of -- you can't back off. You've really just got to plod on and keep your head down. Like you say, finish like that today -- even Gracey, he finished with three birdies and all of a sudden he's leading or wherever he is, in second on his own. You never know what's going to happen but you have to stay in there for as long as you can and then finish strong.

Q. You said yesterday that you were not sure that playing in the wind was your strength. How do you think you coped?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Good actually. I had the ball a bit more under control than yesterday so it felt a little bit easier. But again, it's just one of those things, you've got to keep your head down and keep plodding on.

With the finish the way it is, 15 was annoying because I scrapped all the way. 18 is no gimmie with the way the wind is, but you know if you can hang in there until the end and make pick a couple up.

Q. Days like today, is it as much about the attitude as it is about your golf game?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, massively. It's one of them things, because you can't attack at all but you can't back off because then the course will eat you up. So you've got to, it's a funny way of playing, because you just play and whatever happens, happens. You just have to keep going. You always have a sense pars are good, but you can only see five names on the leaderboard all the way around. They are the top guys, but you don't know what the rest of the pack is doing. So you can't judge what your score is like. Like I say, if you're hanging around level or 1-under and you have the last few, you can crack on.

Q. There's been a lot of good golf in between but been awhile since that breakthrough win. What would it mean if you could grab that second one tomorrow?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It would be massive for me. You know, I finished the year really poorly last year and didn't play well at all. It's been a while since I've been up there in the heat of battle now, particularly with where my World Ranking has finished up and know that I've got to win or start playing really well to get into the majors and the WGCs. It is kind of a big deal for me, really. But we'll just take it one step at a time. Like I say, it's the first time the game has been properly back, and we'll just see what we can do tomorrow. It's been nice playing well in quite a long time really.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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