Tommy Fleetwood gets back on track with superb third round in Sun City

Tommy Fleetwood insisted it was "business as usual" after he revived his chances of wrapping up the Race to Dubai title at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

Fleetwood was three over at the halfway stage in Sun City after disappointing opening rounds of 73 and 74, but he raced into a tie for seventh with a superb five-under 67 on day three which lifted him to within six shots of 54-hole leader Scott Jamieson.

An eagle at his opening hole got Fleetwood up and running on a high note, although he got into trouble at the long 14th for the second day running and ran up a bogey-six before offsetting his first birdie of the day at 17 with another blemish at the 18th.

Fleetwood started the front nine with back-to-back birdies, and further gains at the sixth and ninth holes lifted him to two under for the tournament, but he was keen to remain focused on the final round ahead rather than let his mind drift towards the prospect of being crowned European No 1.

The Englishman enjoyed a commanding lead of over 1 million points in the Race to Dubai until Justin Rose cut the deficit to less than 135,000 with his back-to-back wins in Shanghai and Turkey.

But with Rose opting to take this week off, a win for Fleetwood in South Africa would guarantee him the Race to Dubai crown ahead of next week's season finale at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

"It's just business as usual," said Fleetwood. "You want to try to finish as high up as you can every week. Obviously it's not all sort of plane sailing on the way in now, but when I'm trying to get into some kind of contention for the tournament, when you realise you have a chance of doing it, not once does The Race to Dubai come into my head.

"Next week might be a different story when it's actually the last tournament, but you can't do anything about what the guys do. I was really happy for Justin, he puts a lot of work in, and to see anybody that you know quite well to play like he did, I was really happy for him.

"It just wasn't ideal for me, but I'm getting on with my own stuff. Two rounds that didn't really go that well, and then today was a good one, so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

"Hopefully you've always got something to play for towards the end of the year, whether it's top 30, gets you in The Open or top-10, Race to Dubai, and it's a new experience trying to win it. Every shot counts and every shot should count throughout the year, it just gets magnified towards the end of it."

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