After 11 years without tasting a win, Tommy Fleetwood finally broke through at the PGA Tour’s TOUR Championship yesterday, pocketing $10 million and claiming the biggest title of his career. The celebration was immediate and widespread – but in golf, victory is rarely free of debate. Not everyone was ready to hand Fleetwood unqualified praise. His breakthrough victory has brought comparisons to LIV player Jon Rahm, who was slandered a week ago over his season-long individual title.

Discussing Fleetwood’s win on The Shotgun Start Podcast from Fried Egg Golf, host PJ Clark dug into the nuances of his win, raising questions about what it really meant in the broader context of the Tour. “I just like…he beat 29 guys. Like if [Jon] Rahm won last week. He would have played more holes last week at the LIV event between 54 guys playing 54 holes than 30 guys playing 72 holes.“

PJ Clark’s argument was simple. If Jon Rahm — who was hammered for being crowned champion without a win — then Fleetwood’s TOUR Championship should be met with the same skepticism. “Like we got all up in arms last week about how it’s so dumb that Rahm won the overall thing without winning. This is, to me, similar. I think it’s bad.“

Just a week earlier, Jon Rahm won LIV Golf’s season-long individual title without recording a single tournament win. A feat very similar to that of Fleetwood, who also hadn’t won a single event this season. He had several strong finishes, including a T4 at the Truist Championship and a T2 at the Travelers Championship. But Rahm’s consistency — twelve top-10 finishes in 13 events — was enough to edge out fellow LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann, who had won five tournaments this season. The LIV points system, which rewards winners with just 33% more than runners-up, left Rahm three points clear at the top. To critics, that looked like a broken formula that robbed Niemann of the recognition he deserved.

On the other hand, Tommy Fleetwood’s victory came in a 30-man field at East Lake, spread over 72 holes. To the naked eye, it was an emphatic breakthrough, but to Clark, it didn’t carry the same legitimacy as winning a full-field event. To him, Jon Rahm playing 54 holes in contention with 54 guys—which has got more golf shots happening—is much more difficult than Fleetwood beating 29 guys. Rahm’s victory looks more legitimate. But where the Englishman was covered with praises, the Spaniard had to take the blow of criticism.

“It’s kind of hard to swallow. But at the end of the day, I think it is what it is,” Joaquin Niemann had said after the result. Even for Rahm, the victory felt bittersweet. “You need a lot of coincidences to go on exactly with the year Joaquín had. He’s won five times; he’s played incredible golf. One could argue he was probably the more deserving guy to win this,” he had said, as reported by Golf Monthly.

But a week later, Rahm may have already given his answers to many when he led Legion XIII to victory at the LIV Golf Team Championship. “If there was ever a question mark or an asterisk for not having won the whole season without winning, in my mind, with this it goes away,” Rahm said after the win.

However, it is also important to consider that Fleetwood, despite competing in a 30-player field event, was able to dominate at the end of the day, given that it was a 30-player field featuring some of the best the PGA Tour has to offer. So, debates may rage over whose win carried more weight or who ultimately got overlooked, but golf has a way of coming full circle. The pedestal Jon Rahm stands on today was once the very stage where he stood only as a bystander.

Jon Rahm relives 2022 Rory McIlroy’s lesson

It is not the first time golf fans have seen this kind of outcome. Back in 2022, Rory McIlroy won the DP World Tour’s season-long Race to Dubai title under circumstances that echo Jon Rahm’s recent LIV Golf triumph.

McIlroy hadn’t won a single DP World Tour event during the regular season, yet his relentless consistency carried him to the overall crown. Across 10 DP World Tour starts (including majors), he notched nine top-10 finishes, with his worst result a T12 in Abu Dhabi. That steady accumulation gave him a decisive edge, even as Rahm won two events, including the season-ending DPWT Championship.

The difference came down to consistency. McIlroy’s ability to stack high finishes outweighed Rahm’s bigger but less frequent results, leaving him more than 1000 points adrift despite his wins. Reflecting afterward, McIlroy said, “I don’t think I played as consistent in my entire career as I’m doing right now.”

It’s almost the same storyline playing out again now with Rahm on the other side of the argument. Being a part of a system that placed more weight on steady excellence than explosive bursts.