FEDEX ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

August 11, 2023

Tommy Fleetwood

TPC Southwind

Quick Quotes

Q. Would you even play golf in that heat at home?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Well, in Dubai, we're about to fly back to Dubai in a week or two weeks, and that will be in the 50s, so yeah, I'll be out in it.

Q. How was it today?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It was hot. Yeah, clearly, like conditions bring their own challenge physically. It's very, very hot. Having said that, when we teed off and for the majority of the round early on, it was very calm. It was warm. If you can put it in the fairway, we're playing preferred lies, so it was great conditions to actually score.

Got tougher when the wind came and the wind started swirling a little bit, but overall, yeah, it was just a day where you just keep plodding along. I wasn't doing anything particularly fast, just keep going and try and stay in rhythm and keep hitting shots.

Q. Do you like the way your game seems to be progressing over the last few months?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, definitely. Again, today saw it towards the end of the round. Had to get up-and-down a few times, but that was nice because overall the round up until that point had been very stress free.

The first two days I've drove it so well. Felt really comfortable off the tee and put it in play a lot and then today felt like my iron play got better after yesterday.

Doing so many good things, and sort of consistently putting myself in contention after two or three days.

Yeah, keep doing that, and I feel good about sort of everything that I've been doing.

Q. When you play in this kind of heat, what's the advantage and then what's the disadvantage?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Well, it's better than playing in 50 mile-an-hour winds at Royal Porthcawl how we just saw the other day. It's easier than that.

Obviously the disadvantage is just how sweaty it is, how slippy your hands can be and the grips and everything, and clearly energy levels. You've really got to focus on that and make sure you're drinking enough and sort of don't get ahead of yourself on the golf course.

Q. Ball go farther?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Ball does go further, yeah. It's warm, very hot, and in general the ball is kind of pegged up on the fairways. Even if it wasn't preferred lies, the ball is picked up a lot.

Yeah, but you kind of figure that out pretty quick and get your distances dialed in. Course has been soft still. We'll see how it goes over the weekend, but it has been still a very difficult golf course.

If you put it in play, you feel like you can do things. You feel like you can score. But as soon as you start missing fairways, it's very, very tough still.

Q. You've played here at TPC now a few years. What have you learned over the course of those experiences that can kind of help you even with the conditions changing and things like that?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Well, I'm interested to see like the weather over the next two days, because in general the times I've played, it firms up so much. The course gets firmer and faster, rough gets drier. Played very, very different to Thursday and Friday mornings sort of over the weekend.

It's a fantastic championship challenge. It really, really is. The shots are all there in front of you to see. You either hit them or you don't. If you're hitting good shots, then it gives you the opportunities, but as soon as you're sort of slightly off, it's there to punish you, and I think everybody appreciates that in how a course is set up to play a tournament.

Q. How many bottles of water do you think you went through today?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I have no idea. I should have had a count, actually. But enough. I'm still standing, so I think I've had enough, which is a positive.

Q. Did you pee today?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Not yet, but I'll let you know. You can come and --

Q. Would shorts have made a difference today? Some guys say not really.

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I've never seen trousers like Denny McCarthy's today, he was sweating so much. He looked like he had just jumped in a pool.

Probably. You know, it might have been nice.

But I don't know. It's not something -- trousers, shorts. Just playing golf, it's going to be hot either way.

Q. It's been a little bit more than a year since your mother passed now, and I think that's why you weren't here last year.

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, yeah.

Q. Now that you've had over a year to reflect, I've seen you talk about how she would send you messages kind of cheering you on and things like that. What have you reflect on in that year and kind of what do you think she'd be saying now as you're sitting in the top 3 going into the last couple days?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: She would have sent her usual text saying well played, good luck tomorrow or something.

Yeah, I've been very, very lucky that I've had great parents. Not everybody is as lucky as I am to have the support and the commitment that they put into everything that I did up until -- yeah, the day that she passed, she was still texting me every day, every time I played golf.

I think they gave me a lot of lessons in how to be a parent, and yeah, there's a lot of -- I'm a parent myself now, and there's plenty of things that I'll try and emulate throughout my life.