	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

TURKISH AIRLINES OPEN

November 2, 2018

Tommy Fleetwood

Antalya, Turkey

Q. Completely clean card today, how does it make you feel going into the weekend?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: There was a lot of solid stuff yesterday. I felt like I made a couple errors, and with the scoring, you can't really afford to do that much. Today, I was level par through six and felt like a slow start with the way the scoring it and I played really nicely, hit good putts and just had to wait for that to come.

When you have a clean card, sounds obvious, but every birdie you make is a move in the right direction. Stayed very patient. Hit plenty of good shots and had plenty of looks at birdies. You've just got to keep that going really after the next two days.

Q. Haven't really gotten off to quick starts here in Turkey before, but now solid going into the weekend. Does that give you more confidence, as well?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: That's better, isn't it. That's more like it. I've had decent weekends but always been playing at the back end of the field. It's nice to be -- I mean, I don't know where it's going to finish. No point in looking at scores after 36 holes, but definitely, definitely had a better start than I normally do, and I'll try to make the most of that the next two days.

Q. Having played with Rosey earlier this week, are you surprised to see him on top of the leaderboard or is what you expected?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It's pretty average for him, isn't it, to be up on the leaderboard. No surprise. Generally if you look at a leaderboard, there's a really short name at the top, even if you can't see it and you just work your way down from there and it's Rose. He's playing great golf and playing pretty solid. Most weeks at the moment, it seems like if you're going to win, he's one of the guys that you're going to have to beat.

Again, don't really concentrate on what he's doing. Try and keep up with him but apart from that, do our thing and get the best out of it we can. There's still a long way to go and I was happy with the golf I played today. Got to try and keep that up now.

Q. Assess your play over the first two days.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It's been good. It's been solid. Yesterday felt disappointing. I played with two guys that did really well, and I made a couple of mistakes, which you can't, on a course where the scoring is so low, you can't afford to make silly errors. You can accept a bad golf shot here and there but silly mistakes you can't do. Yesterday there's plenty of positives, but a couple of frustrating things.

Today was a lot more solid. Felt like I putted well. In the past, I find these greens a little bit tricky to read but also the pace can throw you off and you can be really aggressive on the greens but they look really quick. I have easily sort of lacked pace on five-, ten-, 15-footers, and trying to be more aggressive on those. Today I felt like I hit a lot of good putts. Some that could have gone in.

Q. You've gotten off to slow starts the last two years, and Radar has been telling us story about sitting next to you on the plane and discussing why you've not done well and you were going to figure it out and analyse it and what's gone wrong. Anything changed?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I think it was all down to sitting next to Radar. Radar is a life-changer if you have a ten-hour flight with him.

We all look at -- when you've been to courses before, you all look at what you've done well and what you haven't done well. The good thing about stats these days is you have what the winners have done over the course of the year and you can look at how they won and what they did to win and see what you've been missing, from there, look at that.

Plus, I'm playing better. I think at this point of the year, I feel fresher than I've ever done. General really they are long years, and you're always striving for something, doesn't matter what it is, come this time of the year. Everybody is playing for something still.

I think just with the mental approach, how I've practiced and trained, I feel fresher than I normally do at this part of the year. Reflected over two days but still got to put the next two days together and then go home for a rest.

But I felt good, and it generally has been -- I've played well around here and struck the ball well but you just get some courses where you struggle to see a score, like when everybody is going low you and just feel like, 2- or 3-under is like a really good score for you.

If you're hitting it well, this course, really, you've got to hole putts. If you watched Tom play today, Tom played lovely, but was rolling the ball so well, and that's what you've got to do to keep up.

Q. Couple of dropped shots yesterday, five birdies today, no dropped shots. You must be pretty pleased with that round?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Very, very. I felt like I did a lot of good things. Felt like I struck the ball really nicely. It's funny, really, I was level par through six and it feels like such a slow start when the scoring is so low. Made a nice par save on 6 which is a little momentum boost and went on from there to play some good golf.

Wherever you are, 5-under is a good score. It's just the scoring is really low here. If you get caught up in looking at leaderboards and what those guys are doing you can easily get frustrated if you go through a patch of holes where you're not making the birdies.

Overall, I was really pleased today. If I can keep that up over the weekend and keep that mind-set and patience, and just make birdies and keep ticking over, then hopefully two days later I'll be in a good spot.

Q. Does that change the strategy when you know this is a golf course you have to shoot low on four days to be in contention on Sunday?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I think mind-set ways, like I just said, it's so easy to get frustrated. You're going to go through stretches where you're not going to make birdies and people are going to make birdies and that's the way it is. It's so easy to get caught up in that and try and push too hard. The end of the day, the greens are really good and you're going to have to putt well. You're going to have hole putts. Tom did it today. Tom played really solid and really steady, but he holed so many good putts.

That's what the leaders are going to do and that's what you have to do ultimately. When you get on the greens, you've really got to be aggressive and hole them putts.

Q. This time last year, you were 1-under through two rounds and had a great weekend, but you were always chasing. How nice is it to be up there now, at the moment in contention and a couple of shots off the lead?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I might be chasing at the end of the day but not a big deal. Nice to get off to a better start than I normally do in Turkey but still two days left and I have to keep that going. My game feels in good shape.

Like I say, putting today, I felt like I putted a little bit more aggressive, got a lot more putts rolling at the pace I wanted to and there was plenty that could have dropped and just didn't. Just keep doing that and hopefully the scores will come.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297