Tommy Fleetwood cracks LIV Golf joke ahead of Players Championship bid
Tommy Fleetwood says he doesn't believe the absence of LIV Golf players will not diminish a victory at the Players Championship.
Tommy Fleetwood says if he were the only golfer in the field at this week's Players Championship he'd be perfectly happy.
Understandably the chatter at golf's 'fifth major' is all about the strength of field because of the absent LIV golfers.
Star names such as Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau aren't here.
At the beginning of the week Fleetwood's Ryder Cup teammate, Rory McIlroy, said the continued divide was making fans lose interest.
And while Fleetwood is in agreement with the world number two, he doesn't believe a victory this week should come with an asterisk.
He joked to reporters: "If I win The Players… if there was just me in the field, I'd be perfectly happy.
"I would play with the media team, and I'd be happy winning the players! I've got a chance; I would rather it be like that!"
When asked if a win this week would be devalued, Fleetwood said: "I don't think so, tournaments like last week (Arnold Palmer Invitational), the Players Championship, the BMW at Wentworth, you can rattle off tons of events that a bunch of us as golfers have dreamt of winning as a kid, have dreamt of playing in as a kid and I don't think who is playing in it takes anything away from those achievements, in terms of what you've fought for and practised for all of your life.
"I have kids that are in the game now that are trying to be the best they can be and make it. For some people, it's the dream to play in these events, they actually just want to get to The Players, they just want to get to the Wentworth, so I don't think it takes anything away.
"Of course, you want to be challenging your game against the best players in the world, but for us, if we win one of these tournaments, I'm not going to put it in my trophy cabinet and be worried about a few players missing really."
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Fleetwood has made no secret in the fact LIV did approach him over a potential switch.
And he believes that some players have lost sight of the fans because they are just trying to get the most out of their careers.
He said: "I can talk for myself on a personal level. I would say us as golfers, we get so carried away on chasing our career through no massive fault of our own.
"It wouldn't necessarily come to the front of my mind all the time what's going on with the fans.
"I'm always thinking about where's the best place for me to get better, what's the right schedule for me, how do I play in the majors and all of that.
"You get lost in your world in trying to get the most out of your career."
Fleetwood continued: "I actually listened to something earlier on this year and it was about the fans, and it made complete sense because – people that watch the game, people that pay money to come to the game, people that take it up.
"It's all part of everything that we're doing, so I think it's a huge part of it and very, very important – nobody really had that many positive things to say about that COVID time when we were playing and there were no fans, so it just shows what a huge part they play in the moments that we deem as the best moments of our career. I would say the fan are a big part of that.
"Not in a selfish way, you look at it from a career perspective. I look at everything as trying to be the best golfer I can be and chasing my dreams and all of that still.
"You just focus on yourself and how you’re getting the most out of your game really, but the fans and the fan interaction, I feel like most of us do a great job of the fan interaction when we’re here at the tournament, but maybe on the grander scale, you miss out and you look at it now, the best players aren’t playing together maybe and that’s something that’s missing.
"Golf is obviously divided and I would say its not having a very positive effect worldwide on the fans perspective, so I would say that on a bigger scale is something that we could do with putting right."
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