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NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY GARY PLAYER

November 11, 2017

Tommy Fleetwood

Sun City, South Africa

Q. 73, 74, and today 67. What did you do differently if your play?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I played better. I think just generally, I've just kind of been lacking getting something going a little bit. Not once over the last few weeks have I felt like I had momentum going with me. The last few holes, I was hitting a lot of putts that were going in.

It's tough around here. The wind has been up for two days and today wasn't as bad. We did get some gusts but it's difficult. I haven't done anything massively wrong.

Yesterday was disappointing because I made three or four like soft -- I gave three or four soft shots away, which when the conditions are as tough as they were, you can't be doing that on this golf course. Yesterday wasn't that far away from being one of the good rounds of the day.

Today I just played well and holed a couple of putts on the front nine.

Q. Obviously in Race to Dubai terms with Justin Rose's back-to-back wins, now breathing down your neck; has that affected your thinking on the golf course or is it just business at usual?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, it's just business as usual. You want to try to finish as high up as you can every week. Obviously it's not all sort of plane sailing on the way in now.

Today, playing, trying to get yourself into some kind of contention for the tournament, when you realise you have a chance of doing it; not once does The Race to Dubai come into my head when it's like that.

Next week might be a different story when it's actually the last tournament. You can't do anything about what the guys do. I was really happy for him. He puts a lot of work in, and to see anybody that you know quite well to play like he did, I was really happy for him. It just wasn't ideal for me.

But I'm getting on with my own stuff. Two rounds that didn't really go that well, and then today was a good one. So see what tomorrow brings.

Q. 3-over par standing on the first tee after the opening two rounds; normally in a tournament you would well off the pace, but that 67 was dragged you back into contention with no one really being able to get away here.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, it's a tough course. It's difficult to make quite a lot -- as long as you stick in here, that's kind of a good example today. I stuck in for two days. I gave soft shots away yesterday, but you can't play yourself out of the game. You're sort of one round from being back up there. It's that kind of place.

I don't know what the leaders are going to do, but if you gave me that and said, go and sit and have a few coffees or something, I'd have taken it.

Q. What has been the most difficult part for you out there?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Holing birdie putts. Yeah, it's just difficult to make birdies. I've had no massive momentum going. The par 5s are birdie chances but at the same time you can so easily make bogey. It's not even one bad shot; it's one slightly-off shot and the rest of the hole becomes tough.

Not that easy to make birdies out there. The leaders are on 7-under. You just have to keep that in mind. For me, I've kept in there for two days and today was a good one. You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

Obviously you want to get off to a fast start but you can't do anything about it. It's one of them courses that you can't force anything. I had things going my way today and you want to go at pins, but you have to play sensible.

Q. Is your mentality at the moment, looking at the grand scheme of The Race to Dubai, that every position you finish higher on the leaderboards is a few more points towards finishing No. 1?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Big time. Because generally, always kind of -- hopefully you've always got something to play for towards the end of the year, whether it's top 30, gets you in The Open or Top-10, Race to Dubai, and it's a new experience trying to win it.

Every shot counts and every shot should count throughout the year. Just gets magnified towards the end of it. But really, every tournament, every shot should count. It shouldn't come down to this and you're changing your mind-set. Yeah, a situation you can't just lose it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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