In an era when four-time major champion Scottie Scheffler has looked to be practically unbeatable, 34-year-old Tommy Fleetwood overcame what seemed to be an impossible hurdle on Sunday, hoisting the FedEx Cup at East Lake Golf Club to record his first-ever PGA Tour victory.
With a final score of 18-under par, Fleetwood maintained his composure throughout the final nine holes, kept his eyes on the prize, and finally got the monkey off his back.
The TOUR Championship was Fleetwood’s third time leading a PGA event after 54 holes this year: first in Cromwell, Connecticut, at the Travelers Championship, and then just two weeks ago in Memphis, Tennessee, at the FedEx Championship. Coming into Sunday’s final round, the pressure to win was immense, but with the spectators’ backing and missed birdie chances by other players, Fleetwood not only became a winner, he became the Tour champion.
Fleetwood’s win capped off what’s been a year of many firsts in golf.
Rory McIlroy at last donned the green jacket at Augusta National, something that seemed to elude him every year after what was an 11-year major drought. The U.S. Open then produced an unexpected winner in J.J. Spaun, who won his first major championship after only ever placing as high as 35th.
Of course, Scheffler’s two major victories at the PGA Championship and The Open cannot be excluded from the conversation, proving once again he’s the best iron — and perhaps overall — golfer on the PGA Tour, a reality that could stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Fleetwood’s victory added to that list of firsts, showing that the excitement and uncertainty that make golf what it is haven’t gone away.
His win, more importantly, reveals something else: there may be hope for the sport’s future while so much is up in the air.
That being said, it’s not as if golf will become irrelevant, right?
Right?
I’m not so sure of it.
Golf TV ratings have declined over recent years as purse sizes rise, a trend that can’t be maintained for long. Logistically speaking, it doesn’t make much sense for the PGA to continue to increase prize money as it receives less interest each year.
The reality is that golf is a niche sport that relies on its followers’ loyalty to stay afloat, something that suddenly became unpredictable when the LIV Tour was announced.
It’s not as if golf was inevitably going to fade away when that announcement was made, but since then, the PGA has been forced to pay golfers more money to keep them on the course. That decision, in addition to LIV’s rather large financial backing, has led some players to favor dollar signs above all else, giving them less incentive to take smaller events seriously.
Now, the PGA is dealing with multiple issues simultaneously: retaining players, finding ways to increase revenue at events, and combating low viewership.
With all signature events and major tournaments — excluding the Ryder Cup in September — officially concluded, the next few months will largely set the tone for the sport’s future.
The biggest question that needs to be answered is whether there will be a merger between the LIV and PGA Tours. Realistically, if the PGA wants to remain relevant for even the next decade, it should be willing to do practically anything to make it happen. Otherwise, with the direction it’s heading, more golfers may decide to leave, making an already tough situation all the more difficult to come back from.
Viewership would decline even further if more golfers left, as competitive golf amongst the Tour’s top players is what keeps fans on the edge of their seats. This raises another important point: fans don’t care about the money. All they truly want to see is a sport played the way it’s meant to be played.
If the PGA can keep that in mind as they make decisions about what happens next, then there may be hope. But, given how little movement has been made in recent months, the future looks rather bleak, and there’s been no hint of a major move coming anytime soon.