Tommy Fleetwood's first PGA Tour win, at the Tour Championship, could prove to be a prelude to big things for the English golfer. Namely, most believe that Fleetwood now has a paved road ahead of it and a chance to achieve even greater success.
This will certainly be an important figure for the European team at the upcoming Ryder Cup, given that Fleetwood is keeping momentum. Can he be the hero of his team on Bethpage Black?
Tommy Fleetwood's first coach, Norman Marshall, who now runs the Tommy Fleetwood Academy, is also delighted with Fleetwood's game. He is particularly impressed considering that, despite disappointments and defeats in the last minutes, Fleetwood decided to look positively at all the events around them.
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Although some were skeptical, believing that Fleetwood would never win a PGA Tour trophy, he silenced the critics and showed that he knows how to handle pressure from the public as well as the media.
The experienced Englishman is full of confidence, and the European team could also benefit from that.
"We say to the children at the academy, you don't lose - you either learn or you win," Marshall told BBC Radio 5 Live
"He has used these near misses as a positive. Now he's moving forward having crossed the line.
He's shut a lot of doubters up, but the person he will have impressed the most is the most important person; himself. He knows he can do it.
He's now got a deep, deep reservoir of self-belief and confidence. He's got the monkey off his back.
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I was discussing with my wife and we said, 'yeah, this could open the floodgates'."
Failures as a motive
It is certainly difficult to deal with failures, especially when they happen year after year. Rory McIlroy was going through a similar experience.
Although he was dominant from tournament to tournament, the fact that he did not win the Masters trophy caused a strong reaction from the public.
However, the Northern Irish golfer also put an end to criticism this year, winning at Augusta National.
Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy have removed the curse from themselves, and it seems that just such victories could guarantee success for them in the coming years.
