Tommy Fleetwood Earned $33.4 Million Before Finally Winning His First PGA Tour Event

If you've ever golfed before, you know it's a tremendously difficult sport. Whether you've played on exotic 18-hole courses or have fumbled around a mini-golf course with windmills and animatronic obstacles, the core challenge is the same: If you don't hit the ball just right, things can go wrong in a hurry. And sometimes, even when you do everything correctly, someone else is just a little bit better.

No professional has encapsulated golf's challenges more than Tommy Fleetwood. The English golfer had participated in 163 events on the PGA Tour and had never won.

He had come mighty close, of course. He finished in the top five 30 times, which is more than any golfer without a victory has managed in 100 years. At the Travelers Championship in June, he had a one-shot lead going into the final hole before three-putting and losing by one stroke to Keegan Bradley. During the FedEx St. Jude Championship earlier in August, he was up by two holes with three to play in a playoff, ultimately finishing in third place.

Then, in start number 164, at the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, Fleetwood finally made it happen: He won a PGA Tour event.

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Fleetwood actually cruised to a relatively easy victory. He finished 2 under par in the final round and 18 under for the entire tournament. Russell Henley and Patrick Cantlay, who tied for second place, ended up three strokes behind Fleetwood.

As the victor, Fleetwood collected the FedEx Cup and also made $10 million. That bumps his career PGA Tour earnings to $44.4 million—this victory accounting for 22.5% of the money he's made on the PGA Tour.

The 34-year-old Fleetwood had won other golf tournaments before this one. He was a seven-time winner on the DP World Tour in Europe and secured victories in three other global contests. But a PGA Tour title had eluded him.

And now, Fleetwood is all smiles. He's not planning to stop here, either. His post-victory speech still had plenty of motivation in it:

"This is hopefully just one win, the first of many to come. You cannot win plenty if you don't win the first one."