'Search goes on, I guess': Tommy Fleetwood suffers another PGA Tour heartbreaker at Travelers

Surely Tommy Fleetwood had done it.

The 34-year-old Englishman had tried, tried and tried again, 158 times in fact, but to no avail. His 41 career top-10s? The most on the PGA Tour by a player without a victory since 1983 – and seven more than the next closest player, Brett Quigley, who is now 55 years old. Forget best player to win a major; Fleetwood has long been the best player never to win on the world’s biggest tour, period.

And yet, late Sunday afternoon at the Travelers Championship, Fleetwood’s moment had seemingly come at last. Even Rory McIlroy, on his way out of town, had called game with Fleetwood leading by a shot with one to play. “He was more than due,” McIlroy said, “so, yeah, he’s got so much talent and so much ability, and obviously it’s great to see him get over the line.”

There was just one problem: Fleetwood didn’t do it.

With a closing bogey at TPC River Highlands’ par-4 closing hole coupled with a Keegan Bradley birdie, Fleetwood saw his PGA Tour breakthrough suddenly replaced by a sixth career runner-up finish.

“It’s a crappy way to finish,” a devastated Fleetwood said afterward.

Fleetwood’s three-shot lead through 54 holes was erased as he bogeyed three of his first four holes. But he steadied himself and with birdies at Nos. 11 and 13 re-took control of the tournament. With three holes to play, he led Bradley, Russell Henley and Jason Day by two.

Then came the par-3 16th hole, where Fleetwood flew the green, about 25 yards long of the flag. He raced his chip 21 feet past and couldn’t save his par.

Still, Fleetwood, after a par on No. 17, entered the final hole with over an 85% chance of winning, according to Data Golf.

Both Fleetwood and Bradley hit the fairway before Fleetwood, going first, struggled to judge the wind and left his approach just short of the green, though only about 50 feet from the hole. It was a straightforward chip until Bradley upped the pressure by throwing a 137-yard dart to 5 feet. Fleetwood left his birdie try from off the green about 7 feet short, then missed the putt, and just like that, Fleetwood had lost outright when Bradley calmly canned his winner.

After signing his card, Fleetwood admittedly wanted to “go and sulk somewhere” – and he didn’t rule that out – but first, he stepped up to the mic and vowed to find the positives, however hard it would be.

“I haven’t been in this situation for a while,” said Fleetwood, who now has 12 top-25s this season but no other top-3s. “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. … Felt like I did a lot of good things, but there was things that I definitely can do better, and I have to do better. So, I did plenty of things well enough this week to win, I didn’t do that, it hurts. 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.”

The shock continued for a few more questions, as Fleetwood added: “I would have loved to have done it today. Search goes on, I guess. When it happens it will be very, very sweet.

“You know, like in my mind, yeah, I’ve won loads of PGA Tour events; I just haven’t done it in reality, and I’m sure that time will come if I keep working.”