ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 5, 2023

Tommy Fleetwood

Quick Quotes

Q. Obviously a slightly quieter day out there compared to last week, a tournament spread out over three courses, how would you evaluate your performance?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I played really good actually. I got away with a couple of drives early doors. Driver wasn't probably the strongest club in the bag but overall felt like I played really well. I took the chances. Just felt terrible for the first eight holes. Ridiculous that I was 1-over par.

But the I had a nice stretch through the middle of the round and even on the tough holes towards the end, even on 16 and 18, so pars on 16 and 18. Could have been better; could have been worse. Overall probably take 3-under start of the day at Carnoustie and move on to the next three days.

Q. After those eight holes, is there a specific moment where there was a turning point where you turned it around?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Just holed a putt on 9 and then I felt like 10 was a really good par. So was the hardest hole we played up to that point. Made a nice par and then just hold a couple of putts, really. That was the only difference. I felt like I stayed pretty patient. I had a good attitude. Yeah, I just kept hitting good shots, really. I was really happy with how I was hitting my irons and how I was playing. So yeah, it's just one of them things. I got off to a slow start but it's a long week, a long tournament with three different courses, so just stick around, just keep playing, and especially if you play okay on links greens, you can all of a sudden go through phases where you can't hole anything but you go through phases where you just hit the ball at the hole and it can all go in. Hopefully more of those times than the other.

Q. What's the attitude like walking into an event like this? You've obviously grown up playing on links courses.

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I love links golf. I love this tournament in particular. You know, ever since I've been coming here, I've dreamt of having a picture on Swilken Bridge with the trophy. No matter what sort of happened last week, I feel my preparation might not have been the best but my desire to win this tournament and be up there on Sunday and have a chance at doing that, is very, very strong.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the next few days. But like I say, like everybody sort of in golf dreams of having a picture on Swilken Bridge with that trophy and this is our opportunity to do it once a year. I'll be working hard for that.

Q. Nice to see you care-ing on the European theme with the shoes.

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, they are only ones I've got. I actually didn't really want to wear them. I was like, I'm going to ruin these shoes. They are the only ones I've got this week, so it's actually a bit of a disaster if these get ruined, so I'll do my best to keep them dry.