Tommy Fleetwood on Abu Dhabi Championship and start of DP World Tour season

Fleetwood was candid about his drop down the world rankings when facing the media in Abu Dhabi

It would be an overstatement to say Tommy Fleetwood's career is at a crossroads but there is no doubt the Englishman is seeking awkward answers to get his golf game back on track after a frustrating 2021.

"It's always a fine balance because without being too hard on yourself and without being overly critical, you don't get anywhere near as far as what you want in life," Fleetwood told BBC Sport.

"But at the same time you can take it too far and be detrimental to yourself, so you're always on a knife edge."

When better to turn the corner than this week? As he turns 31, Fleetwood comes back to the Kingdom where he has twice reined supreme with stellar victories at the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship in 2017 and 2018.

They were triumphs over strong fields that marked the Southport native as a top class talent.

But while he has plenty of encouraging vibes from this part of the world, Fleetwood has to conquer a markedly different environment to put his name on this trophy for a third time.

This week's 2022 DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) curtain raiser has switched venues from the muscular Abu Dhabi Golf Club to the Kyle Phillips designed Yas Links layout. A spectacular course ranked in the top 50 in the world, it is akin to a Kingsbarns of the Gulf type test.

Fleetwood is embarking on the process with plenty of perspective after a season in which he slid down the standings and lost automatic playing privileges in the United States. The former top-10 player is now 41st in the world rankings.

He ended 2021 in decent fashion with four top 12's in his last seven tournaments, including a runner-up finish at the Italian Open. But the meat of the year, when the biggest prizes on both sides of the Atlantic were up for grabs, was full of frustration.

"I didn't swing it well," Fleetwood said. "I definitely didn't drive it well. With that top end of my bag, I struggled and was always on the edge of losing my ball somewhere and that makes it very difficult.

"I lacked consistency over four days. I quite often had a good round, but there were far too many bad rounds and holes that cost me.

"I lacked rhythm throughout the year and it's easy to start forcing it and overly searching. I wouldn't say I was lost by any means, but it is easy to start pushing too hard and force it."

Fleetwood added: "I know a year is a long time but it goes by very rapidly and all of a sudden you can look back and think I could have done this or that better. It's easy to just lose it for a month or two and the year's going by."

It would be equally simplistic to identify the Covid shutdown of 2020 as a turning point in his fortunes. Fleetwood was tenth in the world and came desperately close to winning in the US for the first time shortly before the pandemic struck.

But he refuses to blame the spell when he chose to stay at home rather than immediately return to the US when the PGA Tour returned to action in June 2020. "I would never make excuses," Fleetwood said.

"The original lockdown was nearly two years ago so its been a long time and I've hit thousands of balls and played a lot of events since then. I would never use Covid as an excuse.

"Obviously it halted me in my tacks in 2020 when I'd come out and started the year well. I felt like I could have, should have won the Honda Classic and then you get stopped in your tracks a bit.

"But I came back out and was in the final group of the US PGA three weeks after I came back from Covid on the Saturday.

"I just didn't do the things that I'd been doing really well, I didn't do them as well and in simple terms that's what happened and I've got to do better."

As he embarks on the year's first Rolex Series tournament, identifying the path back to his previous level of consistency is far from straightforward.

Patience is vital and he knows he cannot rely on an instant fix. "Without putting too much emphasis on results on a day to day basis, just doing the right things consistently, that's what I want to set out to do," Fleetwood said.

"I don't want to lower my standards but just give myself some leeway and do the right things consistently rather than changing it up day to day."

Last year Fleetwood finished in a share of seventh place behind fellow Briton Tyrrell Hatton and once again he takes on a high quality field headlined by Open champion and Race to Dubai winner Collin Morikawa.

As for turning 31 this week, Fleetwood just shrugs. "I won't put too much emphasis on it," he said.

"I feel good, feel like I'm doing a lot of good things. You come back out and get back into tournament mode, so it's about getting ready and playing again.

"I'm looking forward to the year, looking forward to playing and seeing what I've got and what I can do."