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, courtesy of two absolute darts from the fairway, 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.
After tapping in for his par to seal the win, Fleetwood let out a big smile. He shook a few hands and then yelled to the heavens, releasing years of frustration all at once. Grade: A+
T2. Patrick Cantlay (-15): It was just about the worst start one could draw up. Cantlay was 3 over through his first two holes and dropped four off the pace less than an hour into the final round. The 2021 FedEx Cup champion plodded his way around from there and hung tough, getting within one stroke on No. 10 after a two-shot swing with Fleetwood. On a back nine where he fared well all week, Cantlay was unable to muster together a charge to apply pressure on Fleetwood. Cementing his destiny with an ill-timed bogey on No. 16, Cantlay instead settled for his best finish of the season in his last start of the year. Grade: A
T2. Russell Henley (-15): Henley got off to a red-hot start with a 61 in the first round, but he could not maintain that same scoring prowess over the weekend. It remains incredible that one of the Tour’s shortest hitters is able to contend with the best on long, challenging courses like East Lake. His accuracy and short game impressed again this week, but the lack of distance means his margin for error is razor thin for picking up wins. On the weekend, his putter cooled off and he couldn’t create quite enough chances to catch up with Fleetwood. Still, he’ll pick up another big payday, cementing himself as one of the great grinders on the PGA Tour as he gets set to bring that tenacity to the U.S. Ryder Cup team next month. Grade: A
T4. Scottie Scheffler (-14): There wasn’t enough right to overpower the lefts Sunday. Scheffler started his final round tugging his opening tee shot left and out of bounds, all but ending his season with another left miss on the par-3 15th a few hours later as that shot found a watery grave and sunk his FedEx Cup chances. Add in the handful of short putts that the world No. 1 missed throughout the week, and it was actually somewhat surprising he had a chance to win this golf tournament in crunch time. It just goes to show that his immense talent will keep him in golf tournaments even if his game is not 100% there. The season won’t end with a second straight FedEx Cup crown for Scheffler, but the world No. 1 did register his 14th straight top 10 finish dating back to March. Grade: A-
T7. Keegan Bradley (-13): The U.S. Ryder Cup captain was sensational in the middle rounds with scores of 64-63, but he was never able to get the ball rolling in the final refrain despite briefly sitting T2. A couple early birdies pulled him within two strokes before he got stuck in neutral across a very accessible part of East Lake. His inability to produce birdies and fairways while adding a few squares to the card saw Bradley’s name tumble down the leaderboard in his final round. Now, he has just three days to formalize his United States Ryder Cup team selections. The performance remains impressive given what has been on his mind, but it did continue muddying the waters for his decision next week.. Grade: B+
T19. Collin Morikawa (-8): Morikawa found his groove with the putter in Round 1, but it proved to be unsustainable. The two-time major champion was near the top of the leaderboard thanks to an opening 64 where he did not drop a shot against par. After a fast start on Friday, Morikawa stalled the rest of the way and played his final 45 holes in even par. He drove the ball well for his standards and his iron play flashed brilliance; however, it proved to be another week where his short-game shortcomings were too much to overcome.
“It’s weird, but I feel like my irons need to get better,” Morikawa said. “I know my numbers from a numerical strokes gained look fine, but I should be able to step on 15 tee here and aim in the left edge of the water and know that ball is never going there. Seventeen, I had pitching wedge to a back pin, hit it left in the bunker. Those are just shots that right now for quite some time now that I am just hitting. I hate doing that. Just got to keep digging. Wake up every day and just keep figuring it out.” Grade: C
T23. Rory McIlroy (-6): The three-time FedEx Cup champion opened with a 66 and went around East Lake in a bogey-free fashion Friday, but the weekend was not as kind. McIlroy played his final 36 holes in 1-over fashion with eight bogeys and one double bogey on his scorecard in those latter two rounds. He drove the ball great for the second straight week, but unfortunately for McIlroy, he ranked near the bottom of the field in terms of putting and put together his worst performance on the greens since his missed cut at the Canadian Open.
“The things that I wanted to improve on this week, I did,” McIlroy said. “Off the tee was much better. I’m probably leading strokes gained off the tee. I just couldn’t get the speed of the greens all week, and I struggled to see lines and to feel the speed. That was really the story of the week. My putting was so good last week at Caves and then my off the tee play wasn’t good, and it sort of just inverted. I definitely improved from tee to green this week, and as I said, I just couldn’t get a putt to drop. But my game feels close. It certainly isn’t far away.” Grade: D
Margarett Pepper
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