On Sundays, many sports fans tune into Formula 1 to watch the race. Why? Is it to see the strategy of pit stops and tire choices? Is it the impact it will have on the season-long points race? Or is it the crashes (or at least the possibility of crashes)?
On Sunday in Atlanta, golf fans tuned into the Tour Championship with a similar feeling. Tommy Fleetwood was sharing the 54-hole lead at East Lake Golf Club, just two weeks after his most recent final-round heartbreak at the FedEx St Jude Championship. Fleetwood has endured many close calls in his PGA Tour career: six runner-up finishes and, amazingly, 30 top-five finishes without lifting a title. Plenty of podium finishes, to continue the analogy, but no trophies.
While the round started well, largely due to his fellow co-leader Patrick Cantlay stumbling on the opening holes, Fleetwood did have a wobble. The wheels began to skid. But it was at that point, that the Englishman displayed the decision-making and skill that ultimately ended with his first PGA Tour title.
The moment happened on the eighth hole.
When the recent Andrew Green renovation was done at East Lake in 2024 one aspect the tour and their architects were keen to explore was the idea of making the eighth hole drivable. A new green, new bunkers and further tweaking to the contours around the green meant the goal was achievable.
A look at the green on the drivable par-4 eighth hole at East Lake Golf Club.
As for this year, the tour moved up the tee on Saturday and Sunday and made the hole into a 300-yard par 4, making it absolutely drivable for all 30 players in the field.
And the players duly accepted the challenge. Everybody took on the green in both rounds over the weekend. While the field played the hole in 15 under par over the first two rounds, with the tees up, they played it in 29 under par over the weekend. It was the easiest non-par-5 hole at East Lake.
Fleetwood walked confidently onto the forward tee at the eighth hole Sunday, fresh off a remarkable birdie on the seventh, getting up and down from 175 yards out of a fairway bunker to extend his lead to three.
“It’ll be interesting to see what Tommy does here off the tee,” said major-winner-turned-TV-commentator Rich Beem, walking alongside Fleetwood and Cantlay in the final round while covering the action for Sky Sports.
The decision was made. The headcover came off. Mini driver. Fleetwood was taking on the green, same as on Saturday. The result then: safely on the green with a 49-foot eagle putt en route to making birdie.
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However, things went differently on Sunday.
“I felt like I'd lost my swing really,” Fleetwood told the media after the round. “I got a bit erratic from the fifth. I felt like I started the round off really well, really solid, did all the right things. Then I hit two really poor mini-drivers, on 5 and 8.”
He made bogey on the fifth and after missing the green by 60 yards on the eighth, it seemed double bogey was a possibility.
Fleetwood's tee shot on eight sailed right.
Having sliced his tee shot way to the right, finishing behind a hospitality viewing area, Fleetwood faced a daunting decision and shot—61 yards to the hole, with East Lake lurking behind the green, ready to swallow any shot beyond the pin. Furthermore, the bunkers short of the green are some of the deepest on the course and from there, the risk of the water would still be in play.
So, after pacing off the shot and an extended conversation with caddie Iain Finnis, the leader made a decisive decision. He chose to pitch away from the green. He found the fairway but still had 30 yards to the hole.
Fleetwood's choices on the second shot were to take on the flag (and risk the bunkers short or water long) or play out to the fairway left. That's the play he ultimately made.
Of the 28 players who avoided the water off the tee on Sunday, Fleetwood was the only player who didn’t hit the green in two. So why didn’t he take on the shot? Cantlay, playing with Fleetwood and in a similar position off the tee, took on the green and managed to leave himself 16 feet for birdie.
Smart money says the answer lay underneath another headcover in Fleetwood’s bag. His putter.
Fleetwood led the field in putting for the week. He gained 8.15 shots on the greens at East Lake over the four rounds. That is more than double the next best player (Burns, 3.9).
Having missed the green so drastically off the tee, Fleetwood and Finnis logically were looking to take double bogey out of play and simply give the Englishman a chance from 10 to 15 feet for par.
Had Fleetwood taken on the green and found the water, it’s likely he would have made a double bogey. Over the weekend, four of the seven players who found the water failed to get up and down from their drop. With Cantlay looking at birdie from the green, dropping two shots for Fleetwood could have easily seen his three-shot lead vanish entirely on one hole.
Having pitched out short of the green, Fleetwood then faced this pitch shot from 29 yards. Anything short or left of the green could still end up in the water.
He sensibly played right of the pin. Leaving exactly 10 feet for par.
As mentioned before, Fleetwood knew how well he was putting on East Lake’s greens. This was the plan all along having assessed his second shot. And at that point in the tournament, he had faced 10 putts between 10 and 15 feet, making seven of them. The tour average from that range this season is 30 percent.
Thus, having watched Cantlay miss a birdie effort on a similar line to his putt, Fleetwood rolled his par putt into the middle of the hole.
He saved par. He matched Cantlay. And he maintained a three-shot advantage.
That would be the same advantage he would take to the 72nd hole, ultimately making par and winning that first PGA Tour title, and a check for $10 million, by three shots.
The risk of the crash was there. On the eighth, his car certainly looked like it was heading off-track. However, by playing to his strengths and thinking ahead, he was able to recover, get back on the course and speed to victory.