Tommy Fleetwood finally savoured the sweet taste of victory at a PGA Tour event on Sunday, clinching the coveted Tour Championship. However, the 34-year-old’s earnings were significantly less than those of 2024 champion Scottie Scheffler.
Fleetwood had endured a winless streak of 163 Tour competitions before he graced the greens of East Lake Golf Club last week. Sharing the lead going into the final round on Sunday, he held his nerve and triumphed by three strokes over Patrick Cantlay. The English golfer will pocket a cool £7.4million for his efforts, but due to alterations in the distribution of FedEx Cup prize money, he’ll be taking home far less than last year’s victor, Scheffler. The American raked in a staggering £18.5m for his performance 12 months ago. Fleetwood has long been recognised as one of the Tour’s top shooters, but had struggled to shake off his lack of tournament victories.
For instance, at the FedEx St. Jude Championship earlier this month, he squandered a two-shot lead with just three holes remaining and ultimately settled for third place. However, all that changed on Sunday evening, when Fleetwood managed to maintain his lead and outplay both Cantlay and Russell Henley by three strokes to secure his maiden victory.
For his efforts, he was awarded the Tour Championship’s top prize of £7.4m, the most lucrative individual reward on the PGA Tour. However, the world No. 1 received a significantly larger amount last year. Scheffler, who has maintained his golden run into 2025 with five victories, including at The Open and US PGA Championship, won the event last year and was generously rewarded.
The Tour Championship adopted a new format in 2019, with the FedEx Cup points leader starting the event at 10 under par, the golfer with the second-highest number of points beginning at eight under, and so forth. If such a format had been in place this time, Scheffler, who finished tied for fourth at the Tour Championship on 14 under, would have outscored Fleetwood’s winning 18 under score as the American ended the season atop the FedEx Cup standings.
Scheffler capitalised on this last year when he won the Tour Championship by four strokes, becoming the first player to win The Players Championship, the Masters and the FedEx Cup in one season. He bagged a total prize of £18.5m for his efforts, but this year, Fleetwood pocketed £11m less due to adjustments to the competition.
The Tour Championship scrapped the starting strokes format this year, and as a result, the £7.4m grand prize is considered official money. The tournament’s £30m purse represents merely a fraction of the overall FedEx Cup prize pool, which totalled £74m for 2024 and remained unchanged in 2025.
However, this year it has been distributed across three separate stages, explaining Fleetwood’s reduced winning prize. Approximately £15m of this sum was awarded to the top 10 players on the FedEx Cup leaderboard following the Wyndham Championship, with a further £22m distributed after the BMW Championship.
The remaining prize money was allocated to golfers at the Tour Championship, contrasting with 2024 when the entire £74m comprised the final Play-Off event’s fund. Nevertheless, this didn’t concern Fleetwood, who became emotional following his victory.
“When you’ve lost so many times, a three-shot lead down the last doesn’t feel like that many,” joked a tearful Fleetwood on Sunday. “[The fans] are amazing, it makes me a bit emotional. I’m so lucky with the support I get – it’s so special and I hope everyone knows how grateful I am for it.”
Throughout the FedEx Cup Play-Offs, both Scheffler and Fleetwood impressed. The Englishman secured a tied third position at the FedEx St. Jude alongside Scheffler, while the American claimed victory at the BMW Championship the following week with Fleetwood finishing tied for fourth.
Taking their Tour Championship results into consideration, Scheffler has accumulated approximately £16.4m over the last few weeks, whilst Fleetwood has earned around £10.3m in prizes and FedEx Cup bonuses.
