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Fleetwood in confident mood in Dubai

Cape Town - Tommy Fleetwood is feeling sharper by the day as the Englishman returns to action at this week's Dubai Desert Classic, where Li Haotong of China will defend his title.

The 2017 Race to Dubai champion Fleetwood finished outside the top 20 on the European Tour for the first time in five months at last week's Abu Dhabi Championship, and has admitted that he felt a little rusty in his first appearance of the calendar year.

"I'm getting into the swing of things for the year. Last week I was a little bit rusty and things weren't great," he said.

"It's funny, because last year I felt like I played awful around here and it was my best result ever on this golf course. I feel like my game's much better than last week, just in the practise that I've had. I came here on Sunday to do some work on my putting, which clearly needed some work and that's getting better."

The world No 14 - who turned 28 on Saturday - is feeling good about his game after some putting practice in between tournaments in the Middle East, and is looking to make it three successive winning seasons in 2019.

"Everybody enjoys coming to Dubai, not just for the golf, but I think as we get to come here so often - two, three times a year - everybody is so familiar and everybody feels at home. When you travel around the world so much, it's nice to have like a few comforts that you get used to and I think that's why everybody enjoys it so much," said Fleetwood.

Li, meanwhile, defends the title he won in spectacular fashion last year - beating Rory McIlroy down the stretch for a second European Tour title and the biggest victory of his career.

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