Tommy Fleetwood’s success, and his response to it, contains an important message to all of us
It was a baseball star who, more than 70 years ago, first said: “Nice guys finish last.” Ever since, it has been commonly used as a mantra in sport, business, and indeed politics: to be successful, you need an edge, a single-minded determination, a ruthlessness, a selfishness, a willingness to get nasty.
This simple axiom has, through time, even been used as the title of a hit song, a movie, and several self-help books. The world is an unforgiving place, and nice guys just don’t come out on top.
So when the British golfer Tommy Fleetwood, chasing his first tournament victory in the US after 11 years of trying and a succession of gut-wrenching near misses, put his ball in the water at a crucial moment over the weekend, everyone watching believed they had seen this truism made flesh.
Fleetwood is open, approachable, even-tempered, and popular with fans. He is, from all that we know, a “nice guy”. His reaction to his ball finding a watery grave was not to smash his club on the ground, to unleash a volley of oaths, or to blame his caddy. He maintained his equanimity and continued to engage in a friendly manner with spectators lining the course. At that point, we knew he wouldn’t win. He’s just too nice.
What transpired was a morality tale, and you don’t need to have any interest in golf to find it inspiring. Twenty-four hours later, Fleetwood was hugging his tearful adult stepson Oscar on the final green after finally securing the tournament victory he’d chased for so long. He proved us all wrong.
Golf is a cruel sport in the way it exposes an individual’s mental resilience. Of course, it’s no big deal to hit a stationary ball towards a target. No one is trying to tackle you, and you’ve had years of coaching. Self-doubt becomes your opponent. And this is where Fleetwood provides an example to us all, and particularly to those who may be struggling with their own inner demons.
One’s name is one’s destiny, and Tommy Fleetwood’s evokes old-fashioned virtues, of the age of music hall and of days by the English seaside (he was born in Southport, funnily enough). So there was something cheeringly frank and artless about his 20-minute winner’s press conference, which was more instructive and edifying than any self-help book.
“I think it’s easy for anybody to say that they are resilient, that they bounce back, that they have fight,” he said, “but it’s different when you have to show it.
“I’ve had to be resilient in terms of putting myself back up there, getting myself back in that position, no matter how many times it doesn’t go my way, no matter how many doubts might creep in. Think the right things, say the right things to yourself, say the right things outwardly.”
This treatise on perseverance and redemption is not unusual to hear in the aftermath of sporting triumph, but what made Fleetwood’s reaction so striking – and moving – was his humility and his perspective. “Whatever would have happened today,” he said, “we’d have gone home… and my life would still be great. That’s something I would never take for granted.” It’s also something you rarely hear from a sporting champion.
“If I could give my kids one piece of advice,” he continued, “it would be to be a good person first. My dad always told me that. Person first, golfer second. I’ve always tried to be that.”
No matter that, until this weekend, many people saw his career as marked by failure. Fleetwood framed many of his comments by saying how lucky he was to be in his position. Contrast that with successful people in business and sport, who believe their achievements are solely as a result of their own brilliance rather than good fortune.
Fleetwood certainly comes across as a kindly soul, who could be a different style of role model, a personification of Kipling’s advice to treat triumph and disaster as twinned imposters. I understand that golf has something of an aura of elitism, but Tommy Fleetwood’s success, and his response to it, contains an important message to all of us. Nice guys do not always finish last.
