How does this sound?: Tommy Freakin’ Fleetwood – from “Best Never to Win” to $10 Million Richer and a PGA Tour winner at the Tour Championship.
It finally happened. Tommy Fleetwood, the PGA Tour’s poster child for “always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” finally cashed in. After 164 starts and enough scar tissue from close calls to warrant hiring a personal surgeon, Fleetwood picked the perfect time to win his first-ever PGA Tour event – the Tour Championship. He didn’t win a major, but he did win the biggest purse in professional golf, and punted a hairy monkey off his back.
Before this week, Fleetwood’s résumé was basically a Netflix comedy special: six runner-ups, 30 top-fives, 44 top-10s, and more “almost” moments than your ex’s text history. Like any long-running Netflix show, Tommy finally cancelled the series with his 3-shot victory.
The final season of Tommy Fleetwood’s Long Hair & Losing Sucks finally came to end. And it was one of the best series finales of all-time.
At the Travelers Championship earlier this summer, he gagged it away on the final hole losing to Captain America. FedEx St. Jude? He hand-delivered the trophy to Justin Rose (J.J. Spaun came oh-so-close to winning, too) like he was running Uber Eats.
But at East Lake? Same hair. Same game. Different dude came out to play Sunday. Fleetwood carded a final-round 68, looked ice cold down the stretch, and slammed the door on some of the game’s elite: Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, and Russell Henley.
Cantlay, by the way, has become Mr. “close but no cigar” at the Tour Championship. He’s always there, hanging around the top of the leaderboard, looking like a human snooze button, but never actually finishing the job.
And Scheffler? Let’s just say Tommy finally returned the favor. After watching Scheffler vacuum up wins all season like a Roomba, Fleetwood shut him down for once. Scottie blinked, Tommy didn’t. End of story.
Ten. Million. Dollars.
Fleetwood didn’t just win, he pocketed some crazy CEO money.
That’s generational wealth. That’s “buy the bar, rename it Fleetwood’s, and still have enough left to hire Cantlay as the smooth jazz DJ” money.
And let’s not forget: Fleetwood had already made over $32 million in his PGA Tour career without a win. Basically, he was the world’s highest-paid intern. Now he’s the boss.
The man went from “always the best man” to finally catching the bouquet and marrying the game. Rory, Rose, and the rest of Team Europe are probably grinning ear-to-ear. Meanwhile, Cantlay’s somewhere practicing his three-hour pre-shot routine, Henley’s curling 10 pound dumbbells, and Scheffler’s powering through an extra meat Chipotle bowl.
The hair, the smile, the patience, the persistence—it all finally paid off.
In a month, the antagonists in Fleetwood’s redemption story will tee it up against him and his buddies on golf’s grandest stage at Bethpage.
Sorry Tommy. We’re huge fans of yours, but when you put your peg in the grand at the Ryder Cup next month, we hope you and the Euros return to your 2nd place loving ways.
Winners and Losers from Sunday at East Lake:
- Winner: Fleetwood. He finally closed the deal. And he did it against the best players from the 2025 PGA Tour season.
- Loser: Maverick McNeally. Teetering on the edge of making the Ryder Cup team, he could only manage an even-par final round 70 at East Lake. What he needed to do was what Corey Conners did—post a low-round-for-day 62 and jump into T-4 position. Mav, don’t expect Keegan to call you this week to tell you you made his squad.
- Winner: Canadian Corey Conners. On the final day, he jumped 12 spots on the leaderboard after shooting a 62. Had he shot even like Maverick, he would have only pocketed $395k. Instead, before taxes, he swallowed a $2,616,667 cash cow. Yums…
- Loser: Rory. He limped home over the weekend, posting 71-70. He was barely featured on TV this weekend and only his F&F knew where he was on the course.
- Winner: Cam Young. After a final round 66, and finishing up 14-under for the week and in T-4 position, he surely locked up his spot on the US Ryder Cup squad.
2025 Tour Championship Payouts
| Position | Player | Score | Earnings |
| 1 | Tommy Fleetwood | -18 | $10,000,000 |
| T2 | Russell Henley | -15 | $4,352,500 |
| T2 | Patrick Cantlay | -15 | $4,352,500 |
| T4 | Corey Conners | -14 | $2,616,667 |
| T4 | Scottie Scheffler | -14 | $2,616,667 |
| T4 | Cameron Young | -14 | $2,616,667 |
| T7 | Justin Thomas | -13 | $1,121,667 |
| T7 | Sam Burns | -13 | $1,121,667 |
| T7 | Keegan Bradley | -13 | $1,121,667 |
| T10 | Chris Gotterup | -12 | $715,000 |
| T10 | Ben Griffin | -12 | $715,000 |
| 12 | Vktor Hovland | -11 | $660,000 |
| T13 | Brian Harman | -10 | $570,000 |
| T13 | Harris English | -10 | $570,000 |
| T13 | Akshay Bhatia | -10 | $570,000 |
| T13 | Shane Lowry | -10 | $570,000 |
| T17 | Harry Hall | -9 | $482,500 |
| T17 | Robert MacIntyre | -9 | $482,500 |
| T19 | Collin Morikawa | -8 | $452,500 |
| T19 | Nick Taylor | -8 | $452,500 |
| T21 | Justin Rose | -7 | $422,500 |
| T21 | Ludvig Aberg | -7 | $422,500 |
| T23 | Rory McIlroy | -6 | $395,000 |
| T23 | Maverick McNealy | -6 | $395,000 |
| T25 | J.J. Spaun | -4 | $377,500 |
| T25 | Andrew Novak | -4 | $377,500 |
| T27 | Sungjae Im | E | $367,500 |
| T27 | Jacob Bridgeman | E | $367,500 |
| 29 | Hideki Matsuyama | 3 | $360,000 |
| 30 | Sepp Straka | 7 | $355,000 |