ATLANTA You keep kicking at the door long enough, and one day youre 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 Fleetwood.
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. Hed 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.
When the final putt dropped, Fleetwood smiled 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 dont 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 whos 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 wasnt exactly fair to Scheffler, who had been dominant all season, but then NFL teams dont get a head-start in the Super Bowl, and NBA teams dont 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, hes 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, hes 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 Sundays back nine with a three-shot lead, well, Fleetwood officially entered heartbreak-or-triumph territory once again.
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, Fleetwoods three-shot lead was down to one with eight long holes to go.
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 ejected him from contention. 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.
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.
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.