Tommy Fleetwood was visibly emotional after missing out on the Travelers Championship in what would have been his first PGA Tour win as the golfer was comforted by his wife
PGA Tour star Tommy Fleetwood was comforted by his wife and son as he suffered a devastating collapse at the Travelers Championship. The 34-year-old entered the final round of the event in the lead on Sunday but saw it disintegrate after he bogeyed two of the last three holes to hand Keegan Bradley the title, who birdied from six feet on the 72nd hole.
While it looked like the Brit was heading towards the first PGA Tour win of his career at TPC River Highlands, it wasn’t meant to be for the golfer who also missed out on the £2.7million ($3.6m) payday for the winner.
He instead captured the runners-up prize of £1.2m ($1.7m), which rose his career earnings to a staggering £23.2m ($31.2m), but despite the hefty figure, Fleetwood had to be consoled after his loss as he made his way to his family.
His wife Clare – his manager and 23 years his senior – and their young son Frankie were waiting for the Southport-born star who embraced his family in a touching moment that was posted on the official X account of the PGA Tour.
After admitting his heartbreak when speaking to the media after the final round, Fleetwood remained positive that he will one day win a PGA Tour event despite coming up short on multiple occasions and holding the unwanted record for earning the most prize money without winning an event.
“Right now I would love to, you know, just go and sulk somewhere and maybe I will do, but there’s just no point making it a negative for the future really, just take the positives and move on,” he said.
“Obviously there’s a lot of chat about it. I think—I would have loved to have done it today, search goes on, I guess. When it happens it will be very, very sweet.” Possessing the unfortunate record of the highest-earning PGA Tour star without an event win, Fleetwood said he’ll go back to drawing board to see where it went wrong in Connecticut.
“I haven’t been in this situation for a while. I think, you know, when it sort of calms down — I’m upset now, I’m angry — when it calms down, look at the things that I did well, look at the things that I can learn from,” he added.
“When it calms down, the most stupid thing to do and the worse thing to do would be make a week like this a hindrance to what you do going forwards. I obviously played great.
“I put myself in a great position, I was leading the tournament for 71 holes. I just want to make sure that I can put myself in this position as soon as possible again and try and correct what I did this time.”
It was Bradley’s eighth PGA Tour title and his second Travelers Championship in three years as he became the first golfer since Bubba Watson to win two or more titles at the Connecticut course.
Having grown up in Vermont, it was a tournament the former PGA Championship winner used to attend in his childhood days and has now further added to his legacy at the event.
Speaking after his victory, he called his triumph: “Really, really crazy” before adding: “I felt like I was just too far behind the whole day. I was just chasing, chasing. I just had that feeling that I was just too far behind the whole day, but I came in here and made the putts when I needed to.”