Tommy Fleetwood reflects on nervy start to season finale in Dubai
Thursday 16 November 2017 14:36, UK
Tommy Fleetwood admitted nerves played a part in his "shocking" start to the DP World Tour Championship as Justin Rose gained the advantage in the battle for the Race to Dubai.
Fleetwood endured an erratic opening day at the Jumeirah Golf Estates as he double-bogeyed the opening hole and dropped another shot at the third, although he did manage to play the remainder of his round in two under to post a 73.
But his one-over score left him seven adrift of playing-partner Rose, who carded a superb 66 to lie one shot off the lead while moving ahead of Fleetwood in the projected Race to Dubai standings with just three rounds of the season to go.
Fleetwood was frustrated to miss a number of short putts, including one from inside three feet at the 17th, but he remains confident he can repair the damage over the final 54 holes and keep alive his bid to be crowned European No 1 for the first time.
"The start was shocking, I was gifting shots away early on," said the 26-year-old, who has led the Race to Dubai standings for the majority of the season and was over a million points ahead until Rose won back-to-back titles in China and Turkey.
"I played all right, but it was such an up-and-down day. I missed a couple of short putts, holed a couple of decent ones, but I just need to do better.
"There were a few nerves there. I've never been in this position before so there was a bit of nerves, and then I just made a poor three-putt on the first. I got a flyer with my second shot, got out of position, so make bogey and move on. But I made six, that's just poor golf, really.
"Obviously it was a nervy start. You're always going to be nervous when it all comes down to this at the end of the year and I'm playing for like the biggest achievement in my career essentially. But that first hole was like a comedy of errors.
"I was just hit-and-miss all day really. I missed a couple of short putts and that one on 17 - when the greens get a little more grainy at the end of the day and you put a bad stroke on it, the ball goes sideways.
"It was just one of those days, and obviously it looks a lot worse because I was playing with Rosey, who hardly missed a shot and shot six-under. But I just felt, especially after the start, if I had got it around under par, it would have been a decent start, and I just let it slip. I had a good birdie chance on 18, but 17 was just a poor three-putt."
Asked about his prospects of recovering to pip Rose to the Race to Dubai title, Fleetwood added: "Rosey played absolutely flawless golf today, it was unreal. But there are three more days and, at the moment, it is actually kind of out of my hands all of a sudden. I've just got to go out and do my best.
"Being one over is a long way out of it, so if you look in terms of the tournament, I've got to shoot something really low tomorrow and Saturday and then it will depend on how Justin plays.
Live European Tour Golf
"But 54 holes is a lot of holes and anything can happen. It's similar to the last few weeks where I've not had great first rounds but sort of climbed the leaderboard steadily. I wasn't far off after a really bad start, but it's all right. Overall it's not a very good score, but the course is clearly scoreable. You have to move on, today is gone."
