Debate over whether the Tour Championship does the best job of crowning the season’s best player will have to be put on ice for a little while after Tommy Fleetwood won at East Lake on Sunday.
Of course, even Fleetwood’s biggest fan would struggle to argue that he had a better season than either Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy. However, there is no question that his victory at the Tour Championship was one of the most satisfying to watch all year.
READ MORE: Tommy Fleetwood wins Tour Championship as fans hail his PGA Tour breakthrough
Fleetwood’s first win on the PGA Tour has been a long time coming. Like Scheffler, the Englishman finished first, tied for third and tied for fourth during the FedEx Cup playoffs.
It said everything about how popular Fleetwood is that so many fans got as close as they could to the site of the biggest individual triumph yet of his career.
PGA Champions emotional response
There wasn’t a dry eye in sight when Fleetwood was overcome by emotion and broke down in tears after finishing off his win at East Lake.
The debate over whether or not Fleetwood deserves his spot atop this year’s standings has been given more attention than ever before.
PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas was vocal about how much he dislikes it: “I’m never going to be OK with it. I just don’t think it rewards consistent play.” The system does reward good play at times but you’d think more weight should be given to what happened before this three-week stretch. But it is what it is now and we’re all trying to play as well as we can within that format.”
Keegan Bradley’s gesture stands out after Fleetwood’s Tour Championship win
It was also a nice touch to see Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, and Harry Hall waiting by the 18th green to be among the first to congratulate him.
But Keegan Bradley also made sure to embrace Fleetwood before he went inside the clubhouse. The two have history from earlier in the year when Bradley took advantage of Fleetwood’s bogey on the final hole to win the Travelers Championship.
“I’ve said this a million times, Tommy is one of my favorite players on tour,” Bradley said. “He’s one of my favorite people. I mean, you look at his demeanor on and off the course, you can’t not like him.”
Fleetwood handled that loss with class, and Bradley appeared to return the gesture by seeking him out after Sunday’s round.
Bradley has plenty on his mind right now. He’ll announce his Ryder Cup captain’s picks soon and faces a tough call about whether he should include himself in the team for Bethpage.
And while several American players were in contention at East Lake – including Patrick Cantlay – it was still a commendable move from Bradley to make time for Fleetwood given they’ll be opponents next month.
Bradley and Fleetwood have both come under the microscope this year
In many ways, Bradley and Fleetwood probably understand each other’s situations well. If Fleetwood hadn’t pulled off the win at East Lake, the narrative around him might have been very different. He was under real pressure to finally break through after so many near misses.
Meanwhile, Bradley knows that whatever call he makes about his own role at Bethpage, it’ll be questioned if Team USA doesn’t come out on top.
Maybe that’s part of why he respected what Fleetwood managed to do – blocking out all the distractions to win one of the season’s biggest events.
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