Tommy Fleetwood's Win Absolutely Counts, Patrick Cantlay's Shuffle, Alex Noren's W, And Ryder Cup Team Picks
Tommy Lad is a winner on the PGA Tour, Cantlay knows he's slow, plus more from the final week of the season.
August 2025 has been a month for the ages. We began things with Cameron Young earning his first win on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham Championship, and just three weeks later, we officially entered a world in which Tommy Fleetwood also has a win under his belt.
It'll be interesting to see who the golf world decides to gang up on now. The answer is probably Patrick Cantlay, given that he's personally adding fuel to the fire with his pace of play, or lack thereof. We'll certainly get into all of that down below.
Across the pond, Alex Noren won the British Masters in pretty awesome fashion against a strong field, and the Swede deserves some love.
Lastly, it's Ryder Cup captain's picks week, but both teams seem to have already taken shape and the chance of any surprises seems just about nonexistent.
Thanks to all of you who have read, shared, and engaged with Par Talk this PGA Tour season. While another campaign is in the books, we'll continue to push forward and provide all the golf content imaginable, including plenty of Ryder Cup musings leading into Bethpage. Shoot me an email at mark.harris@outkick.com or hit me up on X @itismarkharris—I’d love to hear from you.
Yes, Tommy Fleetwood's Tour Championship Win Is Legitimate
Fleetwood finally earning his maiden victory on the PGA Tour at the Tour Championship is as fitting as it gets. Not only did the Englishman have to beat just 29 other players, but the tournament was also played with preferred lies.
Despite the fact that the jokes literally write themselves, Fleetwood's win should not have any sort of asterisk attached to it. He played great golf all season to make it to the Tour Championship, and he held off the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, and Russell Henley on the weekend to find the winner's circle.
If any of the other 29 players in the field had won the event, nobody would even think about questioning whether the victory fully ‘counts.’ The Tour Championship undoubtedly needs a revamp and a format change, and until that happens, it'll continue to be criticized by golf fans and media members alike, but that's not for Fleetwood or any other player to worry about.
As for Fleetwood's performance on Sunday, it was about as good as anyone could have expected given the circumstances and the fact that he began the final round tied atop the leaderboard with Cantlay.
From the opening tee shot, Fleetwood looked in control, and his 2-under par opening nine holes gave him some breathing room to begin the back nine, which is an ideal situation for a player searching for win No. 1.
The turning point on Sunday, when it really started to feel like it was going to be Fleetwood's day, came on the Par 3 11th hole. After making a bogey on the 10th, it could have been easy for him to compound mistakes on the 220-yard hole, especially playing alongside Cantlay, who had birdied the 10th.
Fleetwood stepped up and hit the green, comfortably two-putting from 35 feet, and settled in to make back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th to start shutting the door. That door was slammed shut after finding land on the Par 3 15th hole, and even with a bogey there, Fleetwood was able to play the final three holes in rather comfortable fashion.
While it was impossible not to poke fun at Fleetwood's inability to get the job done on the PGA Tour, anyone with any sense at all knew it was a matter of when, not if, he would eventually cross the finish line first. Given that he's still only 34 years old, it will be fascinating to see if the win leads to an impressive run over the next handful of years.
Patrick Cantlay Does Not Care That He's Slow
We have a large enough sample size now with Cantlay having made 200 starts on Tour, where we can confidently make two statements about his style of play: he is a slow player, but also a player who does not care that he is a slow player, which is the deadliest of combos.
I think the barrage of hate Cantlay received during Sunday's final round of the Tour Championship was a result of a unique moment. For starters, we had uninterrupted coverage on the back nine and were forced to watch his incredibly long pre-shot routine. He was also playing alongside Fleetwood, who the overwhelming majority of humans on Earth were pulling for. Their group falling out of position by more than two holes very early on was a horrible look as well, but we're also talking about the final round of the entire season with $10 million up for grabs.
To be fair, Cantlay and Fleetwood played their opening nine holes in two hours and five minutes on Sunday, which is by no means fast, but it's also a standard pace when we're talking about final rounds in professional golf.
Cantlay's hovering over the golf ball on the eighth tee simply has to be brought to attention, however. How a guy can even come close to finding the center of the club face while standing there for that long is legitimately impressive.
The fact of the matter is that until the PGA Tour takes action and actually penalizes groups, rather than just issuing time warnings, nothing will change. The Tour issuing fines behind closed doors isn't going to speed things up, either.
Alex Noren, Take A Bow
Noren's 2025 began with a tendon tear in his backside in January that resulted in months of not being able to hit full shots. During his hiatus, he picked up a new hobby in a different sport, coaching his 9-year-old daughter's softball team in Florida, before returning to action in the middle of May.
The Swede had a strong showing at the PGA Championship, his second start of the season, before having a bit of a lull that included three missed cuts in five starts.
Something flipped, however, because the finish to his season was damn impressive. A T-7 finish at the 3M Open followed by a T-3 finish at the Wyndham Championship wasn't enough to get into the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but he decided to jump across the pond to play in this week's British Masters on the DP World Tour, which was a wise decision.
Noren held off the Hojgaard twins, Matt Fitzpatrick, and last week's winner, Marco Penge, among others en route to victory.
Not too bad for a 43-year-old fresh off an injury who last won in 2018.
Both Ryder Cup Teams Feel Like Locks
Captain's picks will be made later on this week and both the U.S. and European teams will be locked in. But at this point, it doesn't feel like we're in store for any sort of crazy surprises on either side. Here is what I think both teams will look like at Bethpage Black:
U.S. Ryder Cup Team
Scottie Scheffler
Bryson DeChambeau
Xander Schauffele
Russell Henley
Harris English
JJ Spaun
Justin Thomas
Collin Morikawa
Ben Griffin
Patrick Cantlay
Keegan Bradley
Sam Burns
Guys just missing out: Cam Young, Brian Harman, Chris Gotterup
European Ryder Cup Team
Rory McIlroy
Tommy Fleetwood
Robert MacIntyre
Tyrrell Hatton
Rasmus Hojgaard
Justin Rose
Ludvig Aberg
Jon Rahm
Viktor Hovland
Sepp Straka
Shane Lowry
Matt Fitzpatrick
Guys just missing out: Thomas Detry, Nicolai Hojgaard, Matt Wallace