Tommy Fleetwood has a relaxed attitude to being on the bubble for the Tour Championship - saying “it beats the heck out of sweating on actually keeping your card, doesn’t it?”
Fleetwood is 31st in the FedEx Cup rankings, and is determined to climb into the top thirty and qualify for next week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.
But he says he will not let that target become an obsession as he tees it up in this week’s BMW Championship in Colorado.
He commented: “Look, it’s always a big achievement to make it to Atlanta given how cut-throat the qualifying process is. A lot of great players miss out every year.
“And being on the bubble obviously brings more attention, as well as the knowledge that you’re so close - yet so far away.
“It’s naturally at the back of my mind, but I’ll only let it become the main focus if I find myself without a chance of actually winning the tournament come Sunday.
“If that is the case I’m sure I’ll be made aware of all the various permutations, and spend a lot the day staring up at leaderboards to see how things are chopping and changing.
“But if I’m honest, I’m actually disappointed to actually find myself in this position.
“I just don’t feel 31st in the FedEx is a fair reflection of the golf I’ve played for most of this year. I feel like I’ve performed really well on a lot of occasions, without getting the most out of it.
“I’ve had a lot of finishes between 15th and 25th - which is pretty good, but well short of what I’m looking for, and what I expect of myself.
“Last week at the St Jude Championship was a great example. I led the field in strokes gained tee to green, but was stone last of the seventy-man field in putting.
“I made the fatal mistake of trying to force things on the greens, probably because I was playing so well that I felt I should be shooting much lower scores.
“I actually putted OK in the first round, but wasn’t quite on it on day two. I missed a short one on 18, and I think that played on my mind a bit over the weekend. I hit a few good putts that didn’t go in, then a few not-so-good ones that didn’t drop either, and the bad ones never go in.
“Yet I’ve putted really nicely in the past at that course. I just need one week when I put it all together - and hopefully this week will be a week, and the ‘bubble factor’ won’t be an issue on Sunday.
Fleetwood was encouraged by the way he performed in the pro-am at Castle Pines near Denver, nicknamed the ‘Mile High Course’ because it was laid out at an altitude of around 6,000 feet.
It measures 8,150 yards, easily the longest course in PGA Tour history, but Fleetwood says thankfully, it plays a lot shorter.
He added: “At this altitude the ball flies about ten per cent further than at sea level, which means it equates to about 7,300 yards, which is around the usual yardstick for the PGAS Tour.
“The big adjustment is the elevation changes and the visuals, and it’s easy to airmail a green, or to overcompensate and come up short.
“But it’s the same for everyone, and I think it’s been set up with some great risk and reward elements to it. It’s a beautiful lay-out and with the Rocky Mountains as a back drop I think it will look fabulous on TV.”
