It took 164 PGA Tour starts, 44 prior top 10 placements and six excruciating runner-up finishes, but Tommy Fleetwood on Sunday at the 2025 Tour Championship finally made his way into the winner’s circle. The 34-year-old Englishman converted his third 54-hole lead of the season into his first career PGA Tour victory, claiming the season-long FedEx Cup crown and the massive $10 million payout that goes along with it.
Fleetwood finished his tremendous week-long effort Sunday with a 68 to post a winning score of 262 (-18); in doing so, he handled the Sunday nerves at East Lake Golf Club better than anyone else in the field. He took his name off the top of the “best player never to win” list and put himself on the short list of players to win the FedEx Cup after a tremendous 72-hole performance at the Tour Championship.
“I’m proud of what I’ve done before,” Fleetwood said of his first career win. “Whether I’ve won or not [before], I’ve still been proud of my career and where I’ve been so far, knowing that I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn. This doesn’t change that, really. This is just, hopefully, one win — the first of many to come. You can’t win plenty if you don’t win the first one. I’m just so happy that I got it done. Happy with my work ethic. I’ll continue to try and get better, try to be the best I can be.”
While it took years of heartache to get to this point, Fleetwood will be well compensated for his hard work in finally getting over that hurdle, taking home that $10 million prize that comes with winning the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup. He’s the second Englishman to hoist the trophy, joining Justin Rose in 2018, but the first to do so by winning the Tour Championship. (Tiger Woods took the season finale that year in a different format.)
Fleetwood’s victory puts a wrap on a season that featured a few other redemptive performances on the PGA Tour, headlined by Rory McIlroy breaking through at the Masters to complete the career grand slam.
After failing to convert 54-hole leads in three previous tries across his career, Fleetwood outlasted a strong chasing pack that tried to take him down. Unlike past experiences, he never fell out of the lead Sunday. Sharing the overnight lead with Patrick Cantlay, Fleetwood quickly found himself with a two-shot cushion thanks to a disastrous bogey-double bogey start from his playing partner.
By the time he made the turn, Fleetwood held a three-shot advantage over Cantlay, but no one expected his back nine to be smooth sailing. A hooked driver off the 10th tee further enforced the terror and tension in the hearts of those pulling for Fleetwood, and his lead was trimmed to one with a two-shot swing on the opening hole of the back nine.
However, unlike in the past when he faltered down the stretch, Fleetwood gathered himself and pressed forward to hit one solid shot after another on the back side. He pushed his lead back to three after birdies on the 13th and 14th, giving himself a needed cushion as he arrived on the 15th tee where his third round briefly unraveled.
On the 218-yard par 3 to an island green, Fleetwood safely found dry land, going a bit long and left into the collection area deep. While that led to a bogey after he gassed his first putt long, it was an improvement on his woeful tee shot in the water on Saturday that resulted in a double bogey.
With that hurdle cleared and a two-shot advantage in his pocket, Fleetwood could take his first real deep breath of the afternoon. When he reached the tee on the par-5 18th, he had a three-shot lead over Cantlay; the only thing that could have prevented him from hoisting the FedEx Cup trophy was his longtime nemesis — himself.
This time, Fleetwood stepped up and smashed a driver down the left side of the 18th, catching the first cut to leave 242 yards into the green. After hitting his approach just short and left of the green — as Cantlay went over the back — Fleetwood was able to enjoy a long stroll up toward the clubhouse with a raucous Atlanta crowd chanting his name, the burden of all those past shortcomings lifting off his shoulders with each stride.
