“As much as you try not to look at leaderboards, they’re around and you do see them,” Tommy Fleetwood said after ending the “best never to win” label with his 2025 TOUR Championship triumph. While Scottie Scheffler’s year showcased consistency at the FedEx Cup with a BMW win and top finishes at the St. Jude and East Lake, it was Fleetwood who rose higher when it mattered most.

Fleetwood opened up on Pardon My Take podcast on YouTube about what it was like knowing Scheffler was lurking. “A little bit,” he admitted when asked if he kept an eye on the World No. 1.  But I was just focusing on my thing. I started to play well enough on the back nine where I felt like it was in my control.” Fleewood’s admission captures the impending doom Scheffler brings on to his opponent. In recent years, he has built a reputation for catching fire on Sundays. Rattling off birdie runs that flip tournaments on their head. Players like Fleetwood know that feeling: the moment his name starts climbing, there’s a sense that the inevitable is coming.

On Sunday, it seemed to be happening again. Scheffler opened with a mistake, hitting his first tee shot out of bounds and carding a bogey. But he steadied himself quickly, finding birdies and clawing his way back into contention. By the time he reached the 15th hole, he was just two strokes behind Fleetwood. That was the danger zone – the point in the round where Scheffler so often flips the script (Remember his PGA Championship performance this year? Or even THE PLAYERS Championship last year, where he won despite battling a neck injury, starting the final round five shots back? His win was considered the biggest comeback in the event’s history.) Instead, his drive found the water. The double bogey that followed ended his challenge and left him at four-under for the day. He tied for fourth.

Fleetwood, meanwhile, stayed in control. He made five birdies against three bogeys and never dropped from the top of the board. His closest playing partner, Patrick Cantlay, had stumbled early, creating some breathing room, but Fleetwood still had to manage his own nerves. Despite all that, he was locked in, focusing on just what he had to do to sail through.

“I was kind of locked on what I was doing. I vaguely had a score in my mind.  Especially after Patrick’s start as well, because like a lot depended on how Patrick was doing. I was playing with him. We were on the same score at the start of the day. He had a bit of a rough start, so he was always kind of playing catch-up.” And the Englishman did just that, signing off at 18-under and finally raising a PGA Tour trophy after 12 years.

But playing against a force like Scheffler is never an easy task because you never know when you might be tossed to the other end of the room. Fleetwood knows of this, and maybe that is why he has always looked up to the world number 1. Ahead of the Open Championship, he said, “From a player’s standpoint, I think having someone like that [Scottie Scheffler] to chase and to look up to and to drive you forward is a great thing.” Later at the Travelers Championship, he again reinforced that point, revealing how he always notices what the Texan does while trying to “copy” that.

And it’s not just him, but several other players on the PGA Tour can’t deny Scottie Scheffler’s reckoning force. Last month, it was Xander Schauffele who was in awe of the world no 1’s performance. “He’s a tough man to beat, and when you see his name up on the leaderboard, it sucks for us,” he said after Scheffler’s Open Championship win, his second major of the season. Even Rory McIlroy has admitted that Scheffler is the “bar they’re all trying to get to.”

Scheffler, for his part, had acknowledged Fleetwood’s consistency even before East Lake. “I would argue making the Tour Championship without winning a tournament is a pretty cool accomplishment.” He didn’t mention Fleetwood by name, but the implication felt obvious. Whether it was meant as praise or a subtle dig is up for debate—but either way, surprisingly, the remark apparently didn’t quite sit right with Fleetwood.

Having said all that, even though Scheffler’s presence did cast a shadow of unease over East Lake’s players, he wasn’t actually Fleetwood’s real threat.

Who were Tommy Fleetwood’s real rivals on East Lake?

Fleetwood’s actual threats on Sunday came from the two men alongside him on the leaderboard: Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley. Cantlay, paired with Fleetwood in the final group, started the day with a share of the lead and looked poised to set the pace. His relaxed demeanour and infamous slow pace of play did irk several people on the course. But then nerves struck. A bogey on the opening hole was followed by a costly double bogey on the second. Eventually, he managed to piece together a series of birdies, but then his charge ran out of steam, forcing him to tie for second.

Henley, on the other hand, was the local favorite and the steadier danger. He stayed within striking distance through the middle stretch of the round and matched Cantlay at 15-under by the finish. Each time Fleetwood faltered with a bogey, Henley was there to keep the gap from widening.

Through all these hurdles, Fleetwood managed to pull through, taking the beautiful victory home.