ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

January 18, 2022

Tommy Fleetwood

Yas Links

Press Conference

BRIONY CARLYON: Delighted to welcome Tommy back to the HSBC champion.

Q. Coming back to Abu Dhabi must always stimulate some fantastic memories for you. Slightly different this year, obviously, different golf course. Just wonder about the dynamics of that for you heading into this week?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I guess it is. It's going to be a completely different test. I think I've played this course once, maybe twice. But being honest, friendly round, I remember very little about it.

The course is a different test. But I think you obviously draw on, I've had success in the area. First event of the year that it's been for the last few years, and it's always -- you never quite know what to expect. You're always -- I always feel very aware that I haven't played a tournament for a while and you feel rusty. But.

I think once you get going and once you get into, it start picks up things about your game and you feel a lot more in the flow of things. Draw on all the good experiences I've had in this event, and take the next two days to learn about the course and start again.

Q. Is it something, just that concept of hitting the ground running after a long break, sometimes it can just clear the head, can't it. Is that too simplistic?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, definitely. I, for one, I never feel anywhere near full confidence when you get to this event just from the sheer lack of competition golf you've had.

I think experience tells you that you felt the same for the last few years and it's actually turned out all right a lot of the time.

I remember last year I was 3-over through 11 holes in the first round, and I actually -- I actually felt all right about it because I felt like I all of a sudden I played 11 holes of competition, and I could pick things from what I had done wrong and managed to correct that pretty sharp-ish. I just think you need to get some holes under your belt, under that pressure and that competition.

It's the first event of the year; so a great result or a bad result are not defining it in any way, but you obviously know you want it one way. But I think you have to set out the week with the mindset that you're going to take the positives from it, you're going to learn from it and you're going to build that into your season whether it's really good or really bad.

Q. In terms of the quality of the opposition that is here, as well, it's a pretty good marker of letting you know where you're at, doesn't, it from the word go.

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, for sure. It's got a lot of great players playing. I've been saying it for a while, no matter where you play now, the standard of golf now is so high, margin for error is so small, and no matter where you are you're not going to get away with playing mediocre, really. You have to turn up and give it some form of your best or highest level to compete with everyone out here.

So there's not really any sort of easy weeks off time off, if you like. But that's great. It's great for the sport and it's great for this event to have so many great players here, and I'm always excited to come back. I love playing over here. I love golf over here. I love how popular it is.

But I've had success here, so there's a lot of good things going for me and for this week for me, and just excited to get going.

Q. You haven't played a round so far, any practise round over here, and you haven't played here before?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I played it once or twice, yeah, but very casually.

Q. So do you think it really is like a links course? Do you need shots like that from your past experience or -- or is it more like just the looks?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, well, the wind obviously plays a massive part. So that's going to play very much like a links. Ball flight control, I think there are run-offs. I think you can putt from around the green, so I guess that's very links-style. So yeah, there's plenty of elements that are -- that are very linksy.

It's a completely different -- I say it's a completely different test; it's a different test to what we've always had at the other golf course but at the same time, I think still, driving and ball-striking were always paramount at Abu Dhabi Golf Club and they are here, as well. As different as the course might look and feel, there's still a lot of things that you have to do right on a weekly basis.

Q. How do you assess 2021 and what you felt maybe needed to improve coming into this year?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I didn't play well enough. I was never -- I was very rarely at a tournament where I felt full -- very confident with my game or where all parts of my game are at. I lacked rhythm throughout the year.

It's tough, and I think every week you get to a golf tournament, there are players that are making the game look easy and there are players that are really struggling. In simple terms, you want to be one of the guys making it look easy more often than not, and it's not always like that.

I think I had a year where I was finding it difficult, like I said, never had my swing. I struggled off the tee which for me has always been a massive source of confidence and where I've broke courses down and built scores in the past. I think when I was missing that, found the game particularly hard. I think when I look back at the year, there was actually parts and areas in my game that were stronger than I thought, which is comforting, and just addressed the areas that I wasn't as good at.

But like I go back to before, the standard is getting higher all the time, and if you sort of drop off, it feels worse than what it is quite a lot and it's easy to -- it's easy to try and search for that which is the same in all sports. Just search for that magic answer on a daily basis and a weekly basis, and I think if you consistently work on the right things, and you do it well enough, then you'll get to where you want to be. But last year was tough. Last year was tough. Never played well. Didn't drive it well. There's no sort of easy courses or easy tournaments these days, so it was tough.

Q. 150th Open at St Andrews, how exciting is that for you and everyone this year?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: St Andrews is a special place. The Open, my opinion, is the most special tournament in the world. I always -- I always sort of treasure the experiences that I have there and the opportunities there are to play that event and he essentially try and achieve my ultimate dream which is winning The Open.

Yeah, massively excited; a course that I love and a tournament that I love. Hopefully when it comes to July, I'll be right in form and I can try and compete again in that tournament.

BRIONY CARLYON: Thank you, Tommy, and good luck this week.