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Tommy Fleetwood finally broke the curse—and it came with a premium prize.
The 34-year-old won the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta on Sunday, the first PGA Tour win of his 15-year pro career.
The Englishman walked away with $10 million by winning the Tour finale. Fleetwood’s career earnings are now at nearly $60 million as the PGA Tour considered the Tour Championship’s $40 million purse as “official money” this year for the first time since 2018.
Entering the weekend’s tournament, Fleetwood had 44 top-10 and 30 top-5 PGA Tour finishes in his career, but had yet to win a single tournament.
The drought was exacerbated after a loss at the Travelers Championship in June. Fleetwood held a one-stroke lead entering the final hole over Keegan Bradley. However, Bradley walked away from the 72nd hole with an outright win following a birdie and a Fleetwood bogey.
Fleetwood had another chance at the St. Jude Championship as he entered the final round with the lead, but finished in a tie for third.
Following the win Sunday, Fleetwood acknowledged that despite a three-stroke lead entering the final few holes, he “wasn’t the most comfortable” due to what had happened in past tournaments.
“When you’ve lost it so many times, three-shot lead down the last [hole] doesn’t feel like that many,” Fleetwood told NBC.
He managed to hold it together to get the win—which he hopes will lead to more down the line.
“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,” Fleetwood said.
As the final round started, several had come out in support of Fleetwood, including LeBron James and Caitlin Clark. James even congratulated Fleetwood after the win, while Clark described his breakthrough as “awesome.”
Fleetwood certainly benefited from the rule changes at the Tour Championship this year. In previous years, the tournament offered a stroke advantage based on the FedExCup standings. That would have put No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler at -10 to start the tournament, five strokes better than where Fleetwood would’ve started.
Scheffler finished at -14 on Sunday, four strokes behind Fleetwood.
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