Patience and resilience

Golf is a frustrating sport. Ask any golfer and they’ll tell you — the number of bad shots and bad games will surely outnumber the good. That’s the nature of a sport where margins come down to millimeters. Golf is often downright unfair. But ask the same golfers if they’d have it any other way, and the probable answer is no way.

Professional golf, of course, takes the difficulty level several notches higher. Unlike amateurs who play for pride, loose change, and the admiration of their weekend foursome, pros put everything on the line. For most touring pros, golf is all they’ve done since the age of four or five. Thousands of hours on the range, countless tournaments, and fortunes spent on coaching, playing, and traveling can all boil down to one short putt.

It’s pressure unlike any other sport. There’s no second serve, no teammates to pass the ball to, no coach to help with strategy once you’re in those pressure-packed moments. It can be a lonely moment — just you, your mettle, your nerves, and all the weight hanging on one stroke.

In the recently concluded FedEx Cup playoffs, Tommy Fleetwood found himself in contention several times. And just like countless other occasions, his efforts ended in heartache. Just like 163 other times, he came up short.

At the Travelers Championship in June, Fleetwood was leading going into the final hole. After a good drive, he was left with a reasonably simple approach. He came up a club short, his lag putt short again, and he failed to par the hole to win or at least force a playoff with Keegan Bradley.

At the FedEx St. Jude this month, he was again on the brink of victory in the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. His steady play kept him in front for most of the tournament. But in the last few holes, he crumbled again, overtaken by Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun. Rose went on to win in a dramatic playoff, while Tommy was left on the sidelines, wondering what could have been.

Coming close and never converting must multiply the pressure tenfold. You already know you have what it takes to contend. And yes, Fleetwood has won several times — but never on the PGA Tour. For some reason, time after time, he folds down the stretch in America. You could see how much it eats at him. While he isn’t as vocal and transparent as Rory was during his decade-long wait for another major, Tommy nonetheless looked like a beaten man once he got himself in the heat of competition. Time and again, he crumbled when it mattered most.

But the beauty of the struggle was never lost on Tommy Fleetwood. He kept saying — and seemed to believe — that he was learning from the heartbreak, and that one day, he would have his breakthrough.

This particular week in August, against the top 30 players in the world at America’s richest tournament, Tommy finally proved the doubters wrong — including himself. At the PGA season’s final tournament, The Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, with $10 million at stake, Fleetwood held his nerve, kept his foot on the pedal, and won in nail-biting fashion.

He didn’t play lights-out golf. He shot just 2-under par in the final round — not what most would call stellar play. But it was more than enough. It kept challengers like world number one Scottie Scheffler at bay. It held Patrick Cantlay, a polarizing figure with local support, a couple of shots back. Fleetwood did what it took to finally win — and what a stage to do it on.

If there was ever any doubt about whether Tommy Fleetwood has what it takes to win on golf’s biggest stages, his triumph at East Lake put all those questions to rest.

Being patient and resilient is easy to say, but nearly impossible to keep doing in the face of mounting pressure and self-doubt. After 164 tournaments on the PGA Tour, Tommy Fleetwood finally lifted his much-awaited first trophy in America. And what a big trophy it was.

With continued consistency, Fleetwood should win many more tournaments in the coming years. His victory this week might just open the floodgates for him in America. This was a well-deserved win for a popular golfer on multiple tours. Well done, Tommy!