Tommy Fleetwood was in on the joke Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference at the 2025 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
Fleetwood, who is still in search of his first PGA Tour win, admitted Tuesday that he wasn’t aware until recently of the competitive changes made to this week’s Tour Championship that eliminated starting strokes and had everyone start at even par. That means whoever plays best over 72 holes in Atlanta this week takes home two trophies — the Tour Championship Trophy and the FedEx Cup. The Englishman who blew late leads to lose both the FedEx St. Jude Championship and Travelers Championship this year laughed at the idea of taking home two trophies this week, given the conversation around his inability to win stateside.
“I think different tournaments have different meanings to you,” Fleetwood said on Tuesday. “There’s so many unbelievable tournaments. 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.
” I think it would be pretty funny if I won this week and then got the FedEx Cup as well. I think that would be funny.”
Tommy Fleetwood bounces back with birdie at No. 16 at Tour Championship
Fleetwood has been playing the best golf of his career, and that has continued through three rounds at soggy East Lake. The Englishman opened with rounds of 64 and 63 to enter the weekend tied with Russell Henley atop the leaderboard. On Saturday, Fleetwood built a three-shot lead before a double-bogey at the 15th saw him drop behind Patrick Cantlay, who was en route to shooting his second consecutive six-under 64. Fleetwood responded with birdies at 16 and 17 to tie Cantlay and enter Sunday with a chance to get the last laugh and a $10 million check that would come with his first career PGA Tour win.
Fleetwood has handled his recent disappointments like a professional. An eternal optimist, Fleetwood has contended that even though he came up short in Memphis and Connecticut, those experiences were positives. He’d take being in contention and losing over not being in contention at all.
“I work really hard on making sure that I make it all into a positive,” Fleetwood said on Tuesday. “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. But being there is actually the hard part in a way.”
So, of course, Fleetwood will be there again on Sunday. He’ll enter the cauldron looking to overcome his recent slip-ups and add a PGA Tour win to an impressive international golfing resume.
The key on Sunday for Fleetwood as he tries to overtake Cantlay while holding off a pack of contenders behind him, including Scottie Scheffler and Keegan Bradley, will be to put himself in the right mindset and stay in that positive space, no matter what the day throws at him.
For Fleetwood, who once again has put himself in contention — in position to learn and grow and perhaps finally succeed — that part shouldn’t be difficult. For Tommy Fleetwood, the optimism isn’t just a tool to smooth over scars and dust himself off.
It’s just who he is.
“I’ve caddied for my kids, and I know what I would say to them, and I think it’s all about being very clear with what you’re doing, having a great attitude, having a great frame of mind, make sure I’m telling myself all the right things and just commit to those things,” Fleetwood said on Saturday when asked how he’d approach the final round. “Like I just said, there’s only 30 players this week. It could be 100, 150, whatever it is, but everybody who tees it up wants to be in that final group on Sunday and is in contention. That’s what everybody wants.
“I am lucky enough that I get to be one of those guys, so I’m having the time of my life out there and I’m playing great and I’ve got to enjoy it while it’s happening. You never know. Tomorrow might be my time, it might not, but I’ll still have a great time doing it.”
Tommy Fleetwood, forever the optimist, knows no other path.
