HERO CUP

January 14, 2023

Tommy Fleetwood

Abu Dhabi Golf Club

Great Britain & Ireland

Quick Quotes

Q. After a long day, it's nice to come off with a couple of points to your name and the team's name. How do you reflect on Saturday?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It was great, actually. I think golf-wise, and it always is going to be really a tale of two different sessions. In the morning, there was some amazing golf played and literally as guys start fatiguing and they have to get themselves back up for the afternoon, the standard of golf changes and it's more mistakes, and it's really important to keep your body language up and push all the way to the end. I was proud of how our guys did that.

A couple of matches could have gone either way. We ended the day two points behind, but two points behind is fine and we have a full, single session to go. We can reflect on today and we'll all sit in the team room and we'll be talking about our rounds and everything, but overall we go out and get a fast start tomorrow, we're straight back in the game.

Q. Was that the key message this morning to putt the foot on the gas?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yes and no. There's a fine line. You send that message out but equally I think it's important to, like you say, the matches can get put back and there's ebbs and flows and of course that's the stats aspect to it where we know that fast starts make a difference, but equally it doesn't mean you can't come back. Me and Shane did it yesterday, 3-down through nine.

It's important to have your color on the leaderboard, that's been one of the most important things. This week we have seen so much blue and we have been behind literally from the get-go. We need to try to turn that around tomorrow and try to build our own momentum. We have shown great fight and a lot of spirit and we have shown how much we can hang in there and we've been very together through the week so hopefully tomorrow can be our day where we build some momentum.

Q. Let's talk about you personally on the golf course today, two points with two different partners. How much have you enjoyed getting some points to your name and your team's name?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I loved it. I thought me and Shane were going to win when we had three holes left yesterday. I thought we played well enough all day, really, to get a point.

And then today, two really solid sessions and happy with how I played personally for my teammates for the two guys that I played with. I felt good about sort of helping them out and not putting them in too much tricky situations. That's always the first part in foursomes you always feel really good about. You always have pride in taking your individual points and adding that to the team score but again, I'm very proud to be leading this team and I'm enjoying every moment of it. We'll come together tomorrow, it's much more an individual day. I think we can all get ready for that, myself included, and look forward to that.

Q. How have you found the dynamic being a playing captain? Your mind might wander through the matches whilst you're out playing in your own game?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Of course, and you keep an eye on everybody and you want to egg the guys on and you want to kind of send them certain messages that you want to get across that maybe you see from on the golf course looking out and it's been great.

It's been a massive learning experience for me and just feel like I'm doing it a lot younger than the majority of people that get to do it but I'm proud of that where I'm thought of and that I can do this job. There's always things that you're probably going to look at and that you can do better and that's part of learning and why we get this opportunity of to do this. I do have dreams in my career of one day being a Ryder Cup Captain. I would love to get to do this again. Couldn't have asked for a better group of guys, I really couldn't, and I've loved every minute of being their captain and how great they have been as a team. I honestly couldn't have asked for more from anybody. So one day left and let's give it one final push.

Q. Two points, a deficit. You know how leads can change especially with those Sundays. What will be the message for your team tomorrow?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Win the first three points and win the lead and go from there.