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WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 19, 2018

Tommy Fleetwood

Austin, Texas

Q. What did you think of the draw?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It's a good one. I haven't seen all the groups so far. But if I was picking a group to watch, I think that would be a good one to watch.

Q. Poulter, you'll have him Wednesday? What kind of history do you have with him?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Not much, really. My first two years on Tour, we didn't really cross paths that much. And just in the last couple of years, I've sort of gotten to know him a little bit better and spent more time with him. But it would be great playing against him. He has been -- he was described as a match play ninja, and I've never really gone up against a ninja before in my life, so it will be a new experience.

Q. Did you bring your Samurai sword?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I don't know what is in Austin, but if there is like karate for dummies that I can start up on just before Wednesday, I'll give it a visit tomorrow.

Q. What have you made the last two years of this event?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I only played last year, and I played San Francisco, so I missed one year out. And it's gone both ways, really. The first year I played, I got beat by Sergio first round but then won my group.

And then last year -- the longest matches going. And then last year, I won my first match and finished last in my group.

So it can go either way. I do think -- I mean it's -- you know, people are going to like it and people aren't going to like it. But I think it's probably been good overall. And at the end of the day, last year, the best player in the world won and I don't think the year before the best player in the world won.

Q. Rory won in San Francisco.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Rory won in San Francisco and did Jason win it? There's got to be something right about it.

Q. If you had your druthers, would you like to play straight match play or do you think this would work better?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: 2015, I liked this format. 2016, I didn't. So depends which one of me you ask.

Q. Are you going to play next week or take a week after off?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, I'm not playing. I have a few days and then I'll be in Augusta the weekend preparing.

Q. Are you going on the weekend for Augusta?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah.

Q. And then you'll go home?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: And then I'll get to go home for a couple of weeks, which will be great. I'm missing my kitchen and my dog and premier league football on Monday night. I don't do anything in the kitchen, by the way. It's a nice kitchen.

Q. Do you miss the kitchen more than the dog?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No.

Q. If you go back and forth between guys that like to play the week before a major, and the guys that don't like to play the week before a major, do you see it switching back and forth?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, it's just personal preference, really. And I've not really got a preference yet. Still working out -- I don't need, like, proof either way that works for me. So I'll just keep the schedule and work how it works.

Some people like to play -- I played nine holes with Jordan today, and he said he's always played Houston before the Masters. Some people don't like to play the week before a major, but that's just a personal preference, I guess.

Q. In a match play format, do you change the way you play, maybe be a little bit more aggressive?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I think you can be, and I think more than that, I think you're just a little bit more reactive at times. And I mean to be fair, the way this course sets up, it's not like you're playing (indiscernible) in the water and then you can play really safe and bail-out. Because the course is kind of funky that way and it will catch you out if you're not fully focused on your shot. But you're just a little bit more reactive to what the other players do. And you've still got to -- still got to just try and -- I mean, you're effectively trying to shoot the best score you can, or hit the best shots you can. It's all the same. It's just that there's another player that can shoot 65 and beat you, or you can play terrible and you can still win.

There's a couple of unknowns in it, really. You can go out in a tournament and shoot four 66s, and you're pretty much going to be good, but you don't know if that's going to be good enough here.

Q. What about the emotions? I asked Rahm last year if he'd be able to control his emotions, and he said yes, and the answer turned out to be no. Do you find yourself, whatever your comfort level is emotionally, spiking one way or another in match play, internally?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Not necessarily. I think the difference between the match play format and a tournament is that you have one round, so it's fair enough that people say you can make an 8 and it doesn't matter, because you go on to the next hole. But you have one round to beat a person out of four, so the time period is short in that sense.

I'm pretty level all the time. I'm watching a guy play and generally you don't care, but when you're playing against them you're sort of watching what they do more so. Their game comes in a little bit more. But emotionally I'm pretty level.

Q. What's the last club you threw? Everybody's thrown a club, haven't they?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I had the Nike clubs for a long time and there's not many of them left, so I can't throw them out of sheer -- like, half cocked. So that's that.

I did actually get a new set of them last week, which I was playing with, because my hosel is bent from overuse, but I've gotten used to them now.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I have another one, but they're not quite the same. So this is like my last one that I'm probably comfy with. But these will last a while. So there's not going to be throwing for at least another two and a half years.

Q. So breaking is out of the question?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Breaking is not there, no.

Q. What can you, if you remember, because this is what Poulter is probably the most famous for at Medinah, do you remember where you were watching that?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I originally drove up to St. Andrews for the Dunhill, and then I -- no, he did it on Saturday, didn't he? I was driving to the dinner on the Sunday, so I watched it in the house, yeah. It was pretty epic. Hopefully that stays a memory, sure it wouldn't happen on Wednesday.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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