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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 15, 2019

Tommy Fleetwood

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome our 36-hole leader at THE PLAYERS Championship, Tommy Fleetwood. You hold the 36-hole lead on the PGA TOUR for the second consecutive week. Must feel good to have another chance here this week.

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: For sure, yeah. A tournament is a long time, and for the second week in a row after two days, I've put myself in the best possible position. A lot of positives, and clearly playing a lot of good golf. So take that and run with it, really. Felt very comfortable out there today like I did last week, and very happy. Two days gone, a lot of good golf, and again, it's good signs when you're up there.

Q. As far as your round goes today, birdie-eagle-birdie start, 67 on the round. How did it go out there for you today and how can you carry that momentum into the weekend?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I had a great range session warming up, and all you want to do then is make sure you try and take that out onto the course, which was very different. I had the absolute dream start. Even then I felt very calm, felt really good. I think even after those first three holes, the drives I hit on 4 and 5, 7, like I was hitting a lot of good tee shots, putting myself in position a lot, and enjoyed it. Today was a little bit more up and down, but it's going to be. You know, there was a lot of good stuff, and I just feel really happy with it.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about how much you think about -- obviously last week you got pretty close, and you got the bad side a little bit on Saturday, but how much do you think about trying to get that first TOUR win here? You've kind of done all you've done across the pond, so to speak. How much does that kind of weigh on you as you go forward since you're playing so well and you want to take advantage of it?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Not that much. You know, it's an obvious next step in my career, and I know the more good golf I play, the more it gets talked about, but that's a good thing, that I'm kind of expected to make that step. At the end of the day, I'm doing what I love, and I love being out in America playing in massive tournaments, and everything is going really, really well.

Hopefully the win will just be a result of things to come. Could have happened already; it hasn't. But no, I don't think about it a lot. Honestly, I enjoy getting better at the game and I enjoy competing week in, week out. I would love to win more. Everybody would. But like I say, hopefully that will just be a result of things that come.

Q. Why do you think no Englishman has won this tournament, and what's the key for you if you think you're going to be the drought breaker?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I need to keep driving it like I have done. Hitting it really good off the tee makes the course. It breaks the course down a lot because there's some tough tee shots and once you get out of position, it makes the course a lot harder, not necessarily because the rough is tough or the fairway bunkers are tough, but actually controlling your ball into these greens is very important, and they get tricky.

So I think I need to keep doing that, which is my game in general. And really the courses, they get tougher as the week goes on, so late on Saturday and Sunday when hopefully I'll be playing, courses get firmer and harder and patience is a key. But I've just played two really, really good rounds of golf, and I played three really, really good rounds of golf last week. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing and see where it goes from there.

Q. And no Englishman winning, is that just a coincidence? There's a lot of good players out of England.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: There's been a few. Strange coincidence. You know, who knows.

Q. You've talked about last week or the U.S. Open or Mexico last year, all these close calls. One of these close brushes, which one really kind of resonated with you the most that maybe you learned the most from?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: U.S. Open probably last year. Again, I played in really tough conditions on the Saturday and the golf course beat a lot of us up. I had a chance to do a few things on Sunday, but you know, that one always stands out. That feels like my closest one because I had to watch for a couple of hours. I had to watch Brooks play, and it was out of my hands and I'd done all I could. But that one stands out. Mexico really two years ago was the first time I'd actually put in a really big result over here, so that was a big one for me, as well.

Yeah, different events for different reasons. They all rack up. They're all things I'm proud of. But that win yet to happen.

Q. The start, I heard you describe it as a dream start. Have you ever started like that before? If so, where?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I started eagle-eagle in Mexico in the second round. It's a nice habit to get into if I can do it. But like I say, it was more -- because I'd warmed up so well, you want to take that out on to the course and I had a good round yesterday, and it was just perfect, perfect start, like I played 1 perfect; 2, holed a bunker shot; and 3, holed a good putt, and it was just on a day that's not going to be that easy. The wind kind of stopped and started a bit today, so at times we had it okay, at times it was really breezy, but you know it's going to be a tough afternoon. So to get sort of a head start on the golf course, really good.

Q. Playing off that, you were 10-under, I guess. Going back to the day before, you finished right with 30. Didn't you shoot 30 on the front nine to finish?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah.

Q. And then actually you were 10-under for 12 holes. Have you ever done that?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I don't know actually. I don't know. It's only 10-under. It could have been 12, I guess.

Q. The other one, two 36-hole leads now that row. How encouraging is that, and did you take anything from last Saturday in particular that you can apply tomorrow maybe?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, it's all very positive. My game is clearly in a very good place. Last week, as you said, I had three very good rounds and one where I struggled but didn't feel like I did loads wrong. And I felt really good on Saturday. I think the things to take from it is how confident I've been with my game. All the good stuff I've been doing. It's been nice, I've had a slower start to the year the last couple years, so these couple of weeks are really nice, really refreshing. Mexico I showed some good golf, last week I showed a lot of really good golf, and now this week. It's just really important to look at all the positives and keep that flow going, keep doing all the same things and keep playing.

Golf is a tough game. Tournaments are long. It's hard to keep it going for four days. 72 holes is a lot of holes. But just keep it going. I'm playing well.

Q. On the 18th tee, someone yelled, "shampoo or conditioner" --
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It happens a lot.

Q. How often does it happen and what's the most creative thing you've heard?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I mean, there's not a load of creative questions about it. It's pretty standard, what conditioner do you use. People like to know, I guess.

Q. Do you ever answer?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I use multiple ones really. There's no secret to this.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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