At long last Tommy Fleetwood is a PGA Tour winner as he eased to victory at the Tour Championship and in doing so clinched the FedEx Cup title.
Fleetwood began the final round at East Lake in a share of the lead with Patrick Cantlay and for most of the day it was a two-horse race between the pair. The Englishman pulled away on the back nine to shoot a 68 and win by three shots on eighteen-under-par.
The Englishman made the perfect start with a par at the difficult first before a birdie at the par-3 2nd. His first bogey came at the fifth but he responded brilliantly with back to back birdies but crucially he made two huge par saves on 8 and 9 to suddenly make the turn with a three shot cushion over Cantlay.
The first two shot swing of the day went against Fleetwood who dropped a shot on the tenth as Cantlay picked up a birdie.
Cantlay handed back his shot at the eleventh and after the pair traded birdies on 12 Fleetwood regained his three-shot lead with a birdie at 13.
The gap was two shots with three holes left when Fleetwood bogeyed 15 but a poor tee shot on the 16th from Cantlay cost him a shot and left him three behind again.
Surely Fleetwood couldn’t throw this away, and he didn’t. He cruised home with two stress free pars.
Fleetwood held 54-hole leads at the Travelers and the FedEx St Jude Championship and fell short but he always insisted he would learn from those experiences and keep putting himself in position to win.
“You just keep learning, don’t you? I think this one, I guess there was Travelers, there was Memphis, obviously plenty before. This probably wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve been here because, as they rack up, you obviously start to think of the things,” said Fleetwood.
“But I feel like I’ve had a great attitude throughout it all. I was a bit erratic today at times, and I was really proud of how I found my swing again on like the 11th hole, 12th hole. Changed my routine a little bit, and yeah — still, when you’ve lost it so many times, three-shot lead down the last doesn’t feel like that many.”
Fleetwood had made 164 starts on the PGA Tour with 29 top-5 finishes before the Tour Championship. He has been way overdue a victory so he might as well make it a double with the tournament win and the season long FedEx Cup title.
“I think I’m proud of what I’ve done before. Whether I’ve won or not, I’ve still been proud of my career so far, knowing that I still have a long way to go and lots of learning. This doesn’t change that really. This is hopefully just one win, the first of many to come. You cannot win plenty if you don’t win the first one.
“I’m just happy that I got it done and happy with my work ethic, and I’ll continue to try and get better and try to be the best I can be.”
Meanwhile, Shane Lowry secured a share of 13th place on ten-under after a final round of 69 as Rory McIlroy finished towards the end of the field on six-under after a 70.
