Fleetwood clocks up air miles in bid to be Europe No 1

Tommy Fleetwood will clock up more than 22,000 air miles in the space of four weeks in an all-out bid to cap a brilliant season by winning the Race to Dubai.

Fleetwood has a lead of more than 865,000 points over nearest rival Sergio Garcia, with Justin Rose another 190,000 points adrift following his dramatic victory in the WGC-HSBC Champions on Sunday.

However, Fleetwood is leaving nothing to chance as he tries to join the likes of Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros in ending the year as European No 1.

Despite becoming a father for the first time recently, the 26-year-old is the only Race to Dubai contender who will cross the globe to contest the last four events of the season in Shanghai, Turkey, South Africa and Dubai.

“Can you imagine if I had a week off and then lost by 20 grand? I can’t let that happen, really,” Fleetwood said ahead of the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya.

“If I don’t win it now, if somebody like Justin or Sergio was to win an event, I can’t do anything about that. But if I had left it out of my control a little bit then I’d have been quite unhappy with myself.

“Everybody wants to talk about it because it’s massive, it’s the Race to Dubai. It’s one of the biggest things you can achieve in your career effectively.

“But all you can do is what you can do that week. The ultimate goal every week is to win. And I do want to win another tournament before the year is out.

“There is pressure but it’s good pressure.”

Four Scots are in Turkey this week – David Drysdale, Scott Jamieson, Marc Warren and Richie Ramsay.