THE 151ST OPEN

July 22, 2023

Tommy Fleetwood

Mixed Zone

Q. Thoughts on the round?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Overall frustrating. Would have obviously loved more out of it. I did a lot of good things. I played great early on. Played really, really well.

Overall, though, there's parts of the round where I sort of lost my swing a little bit, didn't feel comfortable. Hit a lot of good putts, just didn't convert any chances. It's very frustrating now, but in time sort of over the course of tonight look at the positives of what were and try and move on to tomorrow.

Q. You wouldn't say you lost your swing?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, you go through a phase in your round, and unless you flush it and you shoot a 63, 64, there's times when you're going to -- the round ebbs and flows.

There was the middle part of the round after I played so well where I started to just sort of hit a couple of wayward-ish shots.

But again, didn't really get it in any particular trouble. Just wasn't right on it. It was just an overall combination of everything in the round.

But did a lot of good things and had a lot of chances sort of from mid-range that you get on the runs where you hole everything and everything seems like it's going to go in, and today was the opposite.

One or two more would have felt like a great day, which obviously shows there was a lot of good stuff in there, and that's just what I'll draw on for tomorrow.

Q. Does that make it harder to analyse when there's nothing absolutely obvious that --

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, if you're on the outside looking in you probably just say it's one of those days, well played, you did a lot of good things, when it's you, you know, you're frustrated and you try and look at what you could have done different.

You know, I felt in a really good sort of state of mind, had a good attitude really, and just kept sort of hitting shots and moving forward.

It was just one of those frustrating days, especially when there wasn't much wind blowing and it was pretty soft was when you felt like you could get a score.

You know, level par is not a disastrous scores. It just feels worse because I felt like I did have chances and could have built on that.

It wasn't that bad. It's not like I've sat here and shot 5-, 6-over and I was really terrible, so there was a lot of good stuff, and there's still another day to go tomorrow.

Tournament is four days, it's clearly in Brian's hands, but for me going out there tomorrow and playing a lot of the golf that I did today and you never know, the putts start dropping again, you have a good round, and we'll see where we finish.

Q. Do you still think you can do it?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, of course, but it really is down to Brian. Take him out of it, two away from the next best contender, so you go out, play well, and shoot the best score of the day, then you know there's one person that's left. That's the way you've just got to look at it.

A lot of good stuff. And again, having Sundays and low rounds to draw on is always something positive.

Q. A 63...

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: A 63, I would probably take that now and sit off and see if Brian beats that one.

Q. How important was (indiscernible)?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, it would be great to get off to a hot start. It really, really would. Just something to get the round going and build on that.

I actually thought I was going to do that today. I played the first like great, flushed it down there, hit a great putt that burned the edge.

And the second played great, so I felt like I was really doing -- it was the start of a round, and then it just obviously felt like nothing really happened and then the putter got pretty cold.

Again, start well tomorrow and hopefully build on that instead of what was sort of dried out today, and yeah, we'll see.

Q. What was your impression of Brian's round and how he handled having a big lead going into today?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Well, yeah, after his start he did really, really well. Like he hit a ton of great golf shots down the back nine. He was really very much in control at that point. Impressive to watch.

I think there was two really good putts he holed. He holed -- aside from the birdie ones, he holed a par putt on the 7th and then a par putt on the last. Amazingly like clutch putts to hole.

At that point that all feel great for him. He did great today and can't fault anything he did. He was great.