ATLANTA — You keep kicking at the door long enough, and one day you’re going to break it down. Tommy Fleetwood, 0-for-a-career in PGA Tour events, victim of two heartbreaking Sunday losses in the last two months, finally brought home a victory on Sunday at the Tour Championship. In a year where golf delivered so many feelgood finishes, this was one of the best.
But, of course, it had to come with some drama, because nothing ever comes easy for Tommy Fleetwood.
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Standing on the 15th tee, with 200 long yards of water in front of him and Patrick Cantlay three strokes behind him, Fleetwood faced maybe the most consequential hole of his professional life. He’d dunked this shot in the water on Saturday, and another water ball could well have broken him. But on Sunday, the ball held the sloping green, and, even with a bogey, Fleetwood could exhale. He avoided disaster, then cruised through the final three holes to claim victory at 18-under, three strokes better than Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley.
Tommy Fleetwood finally got his first PGA Tour win. (AP/Mike Stewart)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
When the final putt dropped, Fleetwood smiled, pumped both fists in the air and let out a massive scream.
“When you’ve lost it so many times, three strokes on the last doesn’t seem like that many,” Fleetwood said. “This is just hopefully one win, the first of many to come.”
Another Georgia tournament holds claim to the concept that the fireworks don’t really begin until the back nine on Sunday, but the Tour Championship provided its own share of August drama on Sunday afternoon. In the conversation: Fleetwood, who famously had never won a PGA Tour event; Russell Henley, an under-the-radar local who’s been playing some of the best golf on Tour this year; Patrick Cantlay, still technically on the outside looking in at the Ryder Cup team; Keegan Bradley, facing the most momentous decision any Ryder Cup captain has faced in decades; and Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 all too briefly looking mortal.
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This marked the first time in recent memory that the Tour Championship has ditched its tweaks and tics and gone to a straight winner-take-all format, meaning any of the top 30 players in the field could claim the FedEx Cup and the $10 million first-place prize with a win at East Lake. No more starting strokes, no more points compilations — just win, baby. It wasn’t exactly fair to Scheffler, who had been dominant all season, but then NFL teams don’t get a head-start in the Super Bowl, and NBA teams don’t get granted a one-game lead in the Finals.
That meant every player had a chance, and by far the most compelling story — and the one which brought out celebrity Twitter fans like Caitlin Clark and LeBron James — belonged to Fleetwood, the 34-year-old from England. For most of his career, Fleetwood has held the rep of amiable, talented bloke, always in the mix but never really in the hunt. Since 2017, he’s recorded top-5 finishes in all four majors, seven in all. Outside of being famous for not winning stateside, his most notable achievements have come in the Ryder Cup, where he and Francesco Molinari were an unstoppable duo in 2018, and where he scored the decisive point in 2023.
More recently, he’s suffered heartbreak in both the FedEx St. Jude Championship and the Travelers Championship, holding a lead deep into Sunday before surrendering it to Justin Rose and Bradley, respectively. So when he reached Sunday’s back nine with a three-shot lead, well, Fleetwood officially entered heartbreak-or-triumph territory once again.
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But things immediately turned grim for Fleetwood, as Cantlay pulled off a two-shot move, birdieing the 10th while Fleetwood bogeyed it. Just like that, Fleetwood’s three-shot lead was down to one with eight long holes to go.
“If he gets it done today, that would be amazing. I think we’d all love him to,” said Rory McIlroy, who finished at -6 hours before Fleetwood reached the 18th. “But if for some reason he doesn’t, I think we all know it’s only a matter of time. He’s playing so well. He’s been so consistent for so long. But look, I really hope he gets it done today.”
The fearsome Scheffler, trying to become the first back-to-back winner of this tournament, drew within two strokes of Fleetwood with a birdie on the 14th … but immediately dunked his tee shot at 15 into the water. That led to a double-bogey and effectively ejected him from contention.
“Looking at this week, I felt like I could have been a little sharper the last few days to give myself a better chance,” Scheffler said after his round. “But overall, now I have a little time to reflect on the season, and it was a really good year.”
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Bradley made a run until he, too, found the water at 15. Henley could never get much going to make a charge, Cantlay backed up every birdie with a bogey, leaving it Fleetwood against himself.
“You’re always kind of aware, no matter how present you try and stay, you’re always kind of aware of the ebbs and flows of how it’s going,” Fleetwood said after the round. “The door was getting further and further open for me as the round went on, and [I was] sort of trying to stay level-headed about it.”
After that bogey at 10, he birdied the 12th and 13th to extend his lead back to three strokes with four to play, providing some comfort heading into the wicked 15th. He took the bogey there, then just needed to keep the wheels on over the final three holes to collect the biggest paycheck of his career. Three pars later, the victory was his — the first in his 164 career PGA Tour starts. He’s the 18th different player from England to win on the PGA Tour, and the second FedEx Cup champion from England, after the 2018 win of Justin Rose … who stuck around to watch Fleetwood’s moment of triumph.
Cantlay, per usual, was taciturn and straightforward. “I played solid overall,” he said. “Can take a lot of good things from this week going forward.” He now awaits Bradley’s decision for a slot on the United States’ Ryder Cup team, but he appears on solid footing for a roster slot.
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The PGA Tour season is now over, bringing to a close a remarkable run of tournaments and winners that helped the tour regain its ratings and competitive footing after several years of struggle. Still ahead: the Ryder Cup, where Fleetwood, Scheffler and another 22 of their teammates will do battle at Bethpage Black.
For now, though, Fleetwood can celebrate a hard-won victory at long last. “I think it’s easy for anybody to say that they are resilient, that they bounce back, that they have fight,” he said. “It’s different when you actually have to prove it.” At long last, he did.
