“I get goosebumps just thinking about it” – Tommy Fleetwood looks back on the 2018 Ryder Cup

Obviously, the Ryder Cup is different from almost everything else you guys play in, both in terms of its format and the scale of it. When you did start to prepare mentally for that?

Right at the start of 2018. Having had such a great 2017, I made it a goal for 2018 to make the team. When I make a goal, I try to make achieving into almost a kind of a ‘moment’ that I can visualise. I find that really helps me to focus on realising it. In the case of the Ryder Cup, that ‘moment’ was standing on the first tee and hearing the crowd. In some ways, it was easy to picture because I’d played Le Golf National and hit that first tee shot so many times. Fair enough, the circumstances were different but I could visualise the shot and the flight of the ball in the air so that became part of that ‘moment’. That’s as far as I let it go. I never let myself get past the first tee shot. I had no example to base the rest of the experience on so I decided I just take everything else as it came. But yeah, it was a pretty beautiful goal to be aware of.

What were your conversations like with Thomas Bjorn?

He was brilliant. All the way through the process, from the minute he was appointed in 2017 right through to the end, he was first-class. For me, in particular, the transition from being a potential player to actually being one wasn’t a big deal at all because he was so consistent in his approach and in the way he treated every single one of us. We had regular conversations where he told us all how it was going to be, who he thought made good partners but, equally, he wanted to know who we wanted to play with. He encouraged a very open and honest dialogue. I played under him in the EurAsia Cup at the start of 2018, so I got to see him as a captain up close and personal before the Ryder Cup and, honestly, I knew right then that he’d be great for us. The thing about Thomas is that he has a way of making you want to do well for him. He has a real inspirational quality. A lot of people maybe misunderstand him and think he looks quite serious or severe but, trust me, he has a great human and compassionate side. I can’t say enough good things about him.

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What about basic things like getting fitted for clothes? When did that all happen?

That all happens quite a long way in advance. Maybe as much as a year before. For this year’s match, the fittings took place at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai last November. When you arrive for the Ryder Cup at the start of the week, all of your clothes are already there waiting for you and, if you need anything adjusted, there’s a tailor who can take care of that.

When did you arrive in Paris?

I flew in on the Monday morning along with Jon [Rahm], Paul [Casey] and Fran [Molinari] on a charter flight from Atlanta where we’d been playing in the Tour Championship. We flew straight to Paris and went straight to the hotel. I remember being taken aback at just how many people were there to help. You honestly barely have to think. All your clothes are in your wardrobe, arranged into your various scriptings for each day and you’re given an itinerary of what’s happening, when and where. Everything is made so easy for you.

When did you first head out on the course?

We played 18 on Tuesday and that was unlike any other Tuesday round I’ve ever played. There must have been 70- or 80,000 people there
and, of course, you’re signing everything that gets put in front of you from green to tee and so on. It took me a bit by surprise, if I’m being totally honest. I knew it would be busy but I didn’t appreciate how busy. On top of that, I was a bit jetlagged, it was cold, we’d been up early for pictures and it was windy. I couldn’t hit a shot to save myself that day. I was hopeless. Completely awful. I worked out later on that, through the first 11 holes, I was at 15-over. But something really important happened as I was walking off ten. Poults came over to me, put his arm around me and said, “Just get through today. It gets a whole lot easier.” I didn’t realise anybody had noticed I was struggling. I was having a total shocker but Poults made me realise that we were all in the same boat and all looking out for one another. That put me completely at ease.

I imagine Poulter being brilliant in the team room. What was it like in there?

As you’d expect, there were a lot of different personalities but it was incredible how well we all gelled. Everyone just seemed like a perfect match for one another. Of course, you had “leaders”, if you like, but they each brought something different in their approach. You had Henrik, who’s quite a quiet guy but he has this amazing confidence and a really dry humour that you just know he’s going to go out there and do his job, no fuss, no worries. Then you had Poults and Sergio, who are more outward and vocal. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like they’re running around the room, getting in people’s faces and shouting “f**king come on!”. They just brought this amazing energy to the room. The biggest thing we had, though, was a complete lack of egos. That’s one thing I think Europe does amazingly well. It doesn’t matter it you’re Tommy Fleetwood, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy or whoever. Everybody’s equal. It’s an unspoken rule but everyone sticks to it.

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Were family allowed to stay with you that week?

Yeah, so [wife] Clare and [son] Frankie stayed with me and my step-kids came at the weekend. Frankie had to be with us as it was his first birthday on the Friday but Thomas was brilliant about that and made it work for us. He just trusted everyone to do what was best for each of us. The team room was open all hours, so if you couldn’t sleep or whatever, you could go in there whenever you wanted, assuming there wasn’t anywhere else you had to be. It became a nice little sanctuary in some ways. Your life’s not really your own for a week so it was good to have a place to chill out and escape. 

That brings us to Friday morning. You and Francesco were out last in the morning’s fourballs session and the legend of ‘MOLIWOOD’ was born. When did that partnership become a possibility?

Well, Fran and me are great friends and our families are really close, so we’d all been on holiday together in The Bahamas before the FedEx Playoffs started. We talked a lot about the Ryder Cup sitting by the pool or at dinner and so on, and we agreed that we’d like to partner each other. We communicated that back to Thomas but, equally, we were quite prepared to go with whatever he thought was best. I mean, yeah, Fran and I are friends but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to be a good fit for each other in a team golf scenario. Plus, one of us could get ill or just play poorly, so it’s not like there weren’t other options on the table. At one stage, it looked like I might play with Henrik [Stenson] or Casey, which, again, I’d have been more than happy with. Anyway, the week went on and, by the time Thursday morning came around, we still didn’t know if Thomas would put us together. You only find out a couple of hours before the opening ceremony. But yeah, he put his trust in us and, fortunately, it paid off.

The two of you had formidable opposition in your opening match: Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed. How did you prepare in those final few hours before your tee time?

It actually kind of started on the Thursday morning. I’d asked Thomas if it would be alright if I went up to the very top of the grandstand behind the first tee with my sports psychologist before the public gates opened just so I could try to visualise what it was going to be like on the Friday morning. He was fine with that so that’s what we did and it was really useful – but nothing can prepare you for how you’re going to feel as your time approaches. Walking to the first tee, it’s probably as nervous as you’ll ever feel. As you’re going through your warm-up, you can hear every roar from the crowd. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. We were the last of the four matches to go out and, when it came our time, that’s when the visualisation of my ‘moment’ that I had formed right at the start of the year really came into its own. I knew it was a 5-wood off the tee, which, if I could have picked any club to hit for my first shot in the Ryder Cup, it would have been that one. I was also well aware that it was Frankie’s first birthday and I didn’t want anything to spoil it, so I had this extra determination to win for him. When my name was announced, I remember feeling that I was living the realisation of a goal and, weirdly, as nervous as I felt, I also felt comfortable. I’ve heard some other players say that the ball became a total blur beneath them as they stood over their first shot, or that they felt like they would miss it completely. I didn’t have that. I was nervous but I was ready. 

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