Gripping his third 54-hole lead or co-lead in his last six tournaments, Tommy Fleetwood knew he’d already done what he’s always believed to be the hardest part. He’d put himself in the driver’s seat to begin a PGA Tour Sunday once again – tied atop the Tour Championship leaderboard with Patrick Cantlay, two shots better than anybody else.
Now, he’d just need to put all those past failures in the rearview mirror – Memphis, Hartford, Canada two years ago – and finally steer one into victory lane.
“I’m having the time of my life out there, and I’m playing great, and I’ve got to enjoy it while it’s happening,” Fleetwood said Saturday evening at East Lake. “You never know, tomorrow might be my time, it might not, but I’ll still have a great time doing it.”
Eighteen holes later, Fleetwood had his answer: The time was his, and he was no longer the best player to have never won on the PGA Tour.
And for as much as Fleetwood has tried, tried and tried again, it only made sense his Sunday breakthrough came with two trophies – the Tour Championship, by three shots over Cantlay and Russell Henley, and the season-long FedExCup, the latter thanks to a midseason format change that got rid of the playoff finale’s starting-strokes model.
“A nice rule change this year,” Fleetwood said with a chuckle – and the FedExCup trophy in hand – before putting the moment in a more serious perspective:
“I’ve been a PGA Tour winner for a long time, it’s just always been in my mind. To finally do it in reality feels great.”
A seven-time winner on the European circuit, Fleetwood had only accrued scar tissue on the U.S. tour, posting six runner-up finishes, five in individual tournaments, plus a silver medal at the last Olympics. Things started getting cruel at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, where Nick Taylor defeated Fleetwood in a playoff with a 72-foot dagger after Fleetwood merely needed to birdie the par-5 finishing hole in regulation to avoid overtime.
This year the pain only amplified.
There was Fleetwood coughing up a three-shot advantage with four holes to play to Keegan Bradley at the Travelers Championship.
Then came the FedEx St. Jude Championship, where Fleetwood was two up with two to play, only to not even make a playoff between Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun.
“As disappointed as I am,” Fleetwood said that Sunday in Memphis, “I have to try to find the strength to make it all a positive experience and hopefully next time go again, put myself in that position again and we just go again.”
This year’s money is official at the Tour Championship and it paid out $40 million to the field of 30 players at East Lake Golf Club.
Surely, it couldn’t happen a third time. In the last decade on the PGA Tour, 26 players had held three or more 54-hole leads or co-leads, and only two of those players had failed to convert at least one.
Fleetwood, the 27th to join that group, was handed a gift early in the form of Cantlay’s bogey-double start. And when Fleetwood blew his drive right at the short par-4 eighth but made a smart up-and-down par from the fairway, there was the feeling that on this day, Fleetwood was impervious to collapsing.
And yet, two holes later, after a sloppy bogey at the par-4 10th, Fleetwood’s lead over Cantlay had shrunk back to just one – and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was among those not far behind.
While Fleetwood quickly expanded his advantage back to three shots, a bogey at the par-3 15th put him in familiar territory: two shots clear with three holes to play.
“You just keep learning, don’t you?” Fleetwood said. “There was Travelers, there was Memphis, and obviously plenty before. This probably wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve been because as they rack up, you obviously start to think of the things, 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 with how I found my swing again on the 11th or 12th hole, changed my routine a little bit.
“Yeah, it was – I don’t know, when you’ve lost it so many times, a three-shot lead doesn’t feel like that many.”
But this time, Fleetwood flipped the the script:
He extended his lead to three with par at No. 16.
He piped arguably his best drive of the day at No. 17 and made a stress-free par.
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And still up three, he calmly closed with par after hitting his second shot into the rough – and a surprisingly good lie – short left of the par-5 18th green.
When the tap-in dropped, Fleetwood, who showed his mettle with zero three-putts all week, turned to the crowd, took off his hat, tilted his head back and let it all out. His fans, who have been on this emotional journey with him, gave it right back to him.
“It makes me a bit emotional,” Fleetwood said. “Always so lucky with the support that I get. I’ve said this last month or so, the buzz that’s been around me when I’ve been in contention has been amazing, and to get the support like that, it’s just so special, I never want to lose that; I hope everybody knows how grateful I am for it, and I said, we’ll do it together, and I felt like we did today.”
Earlier this week, Fleetwood sat in his pre-tournament press conference and thought about the irony of his first PGA Tour victory potentially being the $10 million Tour Championship-FedExCup double.
“I think it would be pretty funny if I won this week and then got the FedExCup as well,” Fleetwood said.
Finally, the last laugh was Fleetwood’s.
And with his eight-figure check in hand, he was laughing all the way to the bank.
