ATLANTA, GEORGIA | Tommy Fleetwood arrived at the Tour Championship carrying the weight of a PGA Tour record nobody wants – the most career top-fives (30) without winning in 163 career starts.
“I think it would be pretty funny if I won this week and then got the FedEx Cup as well,” Fleetwood said on Tuesday.
Well, the joke’s on everyone else, as Fleetwood held off his own demons and a chasing cast of likely U.S. Ryder Cup rivals including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and captain Keegan Bradley. Fleetwood became the first player in the 19-year FedEx Cup era to make the Tour Championship his first career victory. He posted four consecutive sub-par rounds at East Lake Golf Club to finish 18-under par and win the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize by three shots over Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley.
The last player to make the Tour Championship his first career PGA Tour win was Chad Campbell in 2003, four years before the FedEx Cup began.
Fleetwood came to the season finale at East Lake very much hoping to put an end to his ignominious PGA Tour standard that loomed larger with a pair of painful near-misses this summer in the Travelers Championship to Bradley and the FedEx St. Jude Championship playoff opener to Justin Rose. Those heartbreaks raised the seven-time DP World Tour winner’s PGA Tour numbers to 12 top-threes and six runner-ups without a trophy. Only Bobby Wadkins had more top-10 finishes (50) than Fleetwood’s 44 without a win.
In both of those defeats, the 34-year-old Englishman held late two-stroke leads that evaporated down the stretch. He handled both setbacks with his trademark grace and optimism.
“I’m not going to be picky about which one I choose to have as the first one – this one would be a good one,” he said before putting together rounds of 64 and 63 to claim a share of the 36-hole lead he refused to relinquish this time.
“I actually feel like I’ve played very, very well when I have led the tournaments and been in contention. It’s just I might have not got things right right at the end. It’s not like I’ve crashed and burned. It’s just that I’ve not quite finished things off. … I keep going. I love the buzz when I am in contention, and, yeah, I’m just excited for the opportunity again.”
Naturally, Fleetwood stepped to the 16th tee at East Lake with a two-shot lead on playing partner Cantlay with three to play after making bogey on the par-3 15th. But it was Cantlay who made the mistake with a bogey to put Fleetwood three up with two to play. A couple of undramatic pars was all it took to finally finish it off and lift, not just one, but two trophies on the 18th green at the historic home club of Bobby Jones.
The relief was evident on his face after he holed the final putt for par to close it out.
“I feel like I’ve had a great attitude throughout it all,” Fleetwood said. “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.”
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Bradley will have to make some hard choices to finalize his roster with six captain’s picks on Wednesday. Seven candidates – including himself – finished among the top 10 including: runner-up Cantlay (15-under); Cameron Young (T4, 14-under); Justin Thomas, Sam Burns and Bradley (T7, 13-under); and Ben Griffin and Chris Gotterup (T10, 12-under).
“That’s going to be tougher,” Bradley said of the choices he has, including whether to become the first Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963 at East Lake, when it was called Atlanta Athletic Club. “I’ve gone through a lot of stuff this year, I didn’t know how I was going to handle it. Proud of the way I did. This is a whole ’nother animal. I have no clue. This is going to be really difficult.
“When I get done here, we’re going to talk to my vice captains. We sort of put everything on hold the last couple days. I think they were trying to leave me alone. But we’ll get in touch with them and get our final decisions together. Saw a lot of Americans play great today, which makes me happy.”
Scheffler’s bid to become the first player to win consecutive FedEx Cups fell short as he tied for fourth with Young and Canadian Corey Conners. Scheffler never had his best stuff all week but still loomed on the leaderboard Sunday despite hitting his opening tee shot out of bounds and making two bogeys and a double bogey on the day.
“I battled all week to give myself a chance,” Scheffler said. “I wasn’t as sharp as I would have hoped to have been. I had a good first round, but outside of that didn’t really play my best the first few days. Still gave myself a shot. Just needed a few better swings.”
Scott Michaux