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It took Tommy Fleetwood 164 PGA Tour starts to claim his first victory. Despite being recognized as one of golf’s elite ball-strikers, a definite breakthrough remained elusive. Technical refinement takes time, even for the world’s best players, something Fleetwood needed to undergo as well.

Fleetwood’s transformation began in 2023 when he started working with legendary coach Butch Harmon. The statistics tell a compelling story of gradual improvement. In 2021, Fleetwood ranked a distant 105th in overall strokes gained. Then, he jumped to 23rd in 2022. But everything clicked in 2023. He surged to 5th in strokes gained.

Harmon identified specific technical flaws that plagued Fleetwood’s game. “The problem with Tommy’s swing,” Harmon explained on the Son of a Butch podcast, was that “when it got longer, he collapsed a little at the top, and he got close to the head.” This caused him to get narrow in the downswing. “And when you’re narrow, you’ve got to back up the spine and hit it,” Harmon added. The result? Fleetwood could “miss mostly to the left” and “miss both ways.”

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The solution required grueling practice sessions. Harmon turned to a drill he had used with Tiger Woods decades earlier. “We worked very hard on a drill that I did with Tiger on all those years, where you go to the top and stop,” Harmon revealed. “And I would tell him to go and hit balls, and we’ve done that for hours at a time.” This same routine helped Woods win eight majors under Harmon’s guidance. However, the practice sessions proved so demanding that Woods admitted he “hated” the drill.

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The technical work focused on creating a better width at the top of the swing. Additionally, Harmon worked on making Fleetwood’s change of direction smoother. This prevented him from narrowing the gap as he came down because his spine wasn’t backing up anymore. Consequently, Fleetwood gained better control over his ball flight.

The payoff finally arrived at East Lake during the 2025 Tour Championship. Harmon noted how “most of the shots were pinned high all the time.” They landed “always on the proper side of the green, always where he needed to be to give himself a chance.” This precise ball control proved decisive in Fleetwood’s breakthrough victory.

Fleetwood’s journey reflects a broader reality about elite-level development in modern professional golf.

Tommy Fleetwood’s journey is something shared with Rickie Fowler

Professional golfers operate at such high levels that marginal gains take extensive time to manifest. Rickie Fowler experienced a similar timeline with Harmon. They first worked together in 2013, then reconnected in 2022 after disappointing performances. The rekindled partnership bore fruit the following year when Fowler claimed victory at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.

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Elite players must strike a balance between immediate competitive demands and long-term technical development. Moreover, ingrained movement patterns developed over decades resist change. They require persistent work to overwrite completely.

The journey demonstrates that even for golf’s elite, systematic technical refinement remains essential for breakthrough success. Fleetwood’s three-year transformation serves as a reminder that meaningful change takes time at the highest levels of professional golf.

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