ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

January 22, 2021

Tommy Fleetwood

Abu Dhabi Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. 3-over par for your first 11 holes in difficult condition yesterday and 9-under for the last 25. What caused the change in fortunes?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Slept on it. That clearly made a difference. I think yesterday, I struggled, like I walked off and sat there last night and talked to Finno know and Tommo, and I kind of -- I think I just forced it a little bit.

It was really windy going out there in tough conditions and I think I tried to force a few golf shots playing in the wind, trying too hard to hit good golf shot and didn't do the things that we work on, really. So that was just something that we spoke about.

Hit some putts. Hit a few bad wedges. It was an all-around bad ten holes. Last night, the putt on 11, I looked at it -- come back tomorrow. That was probably the best thing we did, really. I'll be honest, probably wasn't going to go in last night. Have a feeling I might have missed it.

Slept on it, hit a good one this morning and stiffed it on 12 and got playing again and got going. Yeah, today, I did things a lot better. Did what we discussed in my golf swing and drove it really, really well there after noon and that made such a big difference in the wind. I was driving it really well. Hit some great irons. Holed out really well. Didn't really give anything away. So it was a much better day, really.

Q. Six number clubs in your bag and a new ball courtesy of signing a new contract with a new manufacturer. Are they bedding in, and how important was the testing last week to your golf game?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: They are going really well. I think the thing is, it's TaylorMade; I've used their stuff for a long time. Since Nike stopped making clubs, they were the first set of irons I went to, first set of woods I went to from Nike. So I've been with them a while and then flipping and changing different stuff.

It's been really nice to have like a team behind me with the clubs and everything. And yeah, no matter how much sort of testing you do, you still have to go and take it out on the golf course, and got thrown in the deep end, really, yesterday with the conditions.

But today has given me a lot of confidence. New ball's great. I drove it brilliant today. And you know, I'm hitting my irons really, really well. Work is going well and the equipment is going well. But you always need that proof, really, and I don't think you'll get many tougher days where you test it on, so all good.