When Tommy Fleetwood three-putted the 72nd hole to lose the Travelers Championship to Keegan Bradley, he stood in front of the media and promised resolve after flushing his disappointment and anger. Two months later, Fleetwood again bungled a late lead as he watched Justin Rose steal the FedEx St. Jude Championship from him. It was there, in Memphis, that Fleetwood vowed to take the positives from another heartbreak. He was adamant that his story was written and would continue to enjoy every chance he had to track down his first PGA Tour win.
It was in his close calls, the heartbreaks, that Fleetwood revealed part of himself. An eternal optimist, Fleetwood’s perspective and positive mindset were a steadying force that allowed him to pick himself off the mat and go again when the time called. The disappointments were gutting, of course. He felt them. The scars were real. But where sports often feed us athletes whose “killer instinct” is shrouded in steely stares, amplified bravado and outbursts at failure, Tommy Fleetwood offered us something different.
A resilience born out of pride, heart and a belief that the relentless chase of his dreams was leading somewhere.
“I work really hard on making sure that I make it all into a positive,” Fleetwood said on Tuesday ahead of the Tour Championship at East Lake. “Of course, I’m not going to feed you lies and say, ‘Oh, Memphis I thought I did everything great, or Travelers, I didn’t do anything wrong.’ Of course, I got things wrong down the stretch, and it didn’t happen for me. But you just learn from those experiences, and I think the overriding, I guess, emotions are a lot of positives. I would rather you be questioning me about not finishing tournaments off than not questioning me at all about anything. So I’ve obviously shown a lot of really good stuff and put myself in great positions. I’ve said every single time that I just want to put myself there again. I want to give myself another chance. I’ll finish it off at some point. I’ll get it right and I’ll get it right more than once.
“I work really hard on letting things go, moving on. Not that much great comes from those moments of anger, if you like. But like I say, like anybody, I get disappointed. I get frustrated. I get angry. I doubt myself. Of course I do. But it’s all part of being a professional athlete and part of trying to chase your dreams and accomplish great things around unbelievable golfers.”
So it wasn’t a surprise that the man who had been the world’s third-best golfer in 2025 put himself back in contention this week at East Lake, looking to take home the FedEx Cup title with his first PGA Tour win.
He opened with rounds of 63, 64 and 67 to share the 54-hole lead with Patrick Cantlay. Again, Fleetwood put himself in a position to walk through the cauldron and prove that his relentless positivity could blaze a path to his dreams.
Fleetwood’s start Sunday was, by his own admission, “erratic,” but he still built a lead as Cantlay stumbled early. The lead shrank as they made the turn, but then Fleetwood reset, changed his routine, found his swing, and fired darts into the 12th and 13th greens for back-to-back birdies. A bogey at the par-3 15th trimmed his lead, but it grew back to three when Cantlay bogeyed the 16th and Fleetwood took a three-shot lead to the 18th tee to make his waltz into the winner’s circle.
When Fleetwood tapped in for par to finish at 18-under, three shots clear of Cantlay and Russell Henley, he let out a sigh of relief, then shook Cantlay’s hand, hugged his caddie and let out a primal scream toward all the fans who had been trying to will “Tommy Lad” across the line on Sunday at East Lake.
