Dubai: Tommy Fleetwood needs to finish at least 16th at this weekend’s inaugural Asian Tour season-ending Dubai Open to break into the Top 50 in the world rankings and qualify for next year’s Masters Tournament.
The 23-year-old Englishman watched this year’s action at Augusta from outside the ropes but next year he hopes to be playing in his third major.
“I’ve only got one more week to do it,” he said. “This is the last event of the whole year on any tour, so I just need a good result. It’s keeping me occupied trying to get into that Top 50. It would be great to do it this week.
“I’ve got a rough idea of what I need to do [finish top 16th] but I’m trying to keep that at the back of my mind. At the end of the day I’ve just got to try and win the tournament and play the best I can.
“The hard thing is just trying to keep it out of my head and play golf like I normally would. So, we’ll see how well I cope with that this week.”
Fleetwood, who has missed the cut in two previous major appearances at this year’s Open Championship and PGA Championship, said returning to Augusta as a player and not a fan had been a target since witnessing Bubba Watson’s win in April.
“That was a massive goal for me at the start of the year,” he added. “I said I wanted to finish inside the Top 50 and now I’ve got the chance to do it.
“It would be great, if having watched The Masters this year, I could be playing it next year. It’s obviously a massive target, so hopefully this year I can secure it.”
Fleetwood, who has one European Tour event win and one European Challenge Tour victory since turning professional in 2010, played alongside fellow Englishman Lee Westwood during the latter’s Thailand Golf Championship win at the weekend and said he was inspired by his senior.
“It was a great learning experience for me to watch him go about his business on the last day when after bogeying the first two holes, you thought he was completely out of it, and then he came back and ends up winning it.
“Definitely, I think the next time I’m in contention, I’ll take something from the way he was, how calm he was and the way he kept his focus to get the job done. He was really impressive to watch.”