Breakfast Ball #76: The Bitter Taste of Defeat

A tough weekend for anyone invested in European golf, just over a year on from McIlroy’s heartbreak at the U.S. Open. A great weekend for the U.S. on the course, and you can go to other news sources for commentary on the off the course stuff…

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Tommy Fleetwood’s search for a first PGA Tour victory goes on after agonizing defeat at The Travelers Championship

Golf can be a brutally unforgiving game. Each week, more than 150 players tee it up with dreams of winning, yet only one walks away with the trophy. Half of the field leave with absolutely nothing. Tiger Woods won 22.8% of his starts, a remarkable number for a remarkable player, but he still fell short 76.8% of the time he tee'd it up.

However, in individual sports, victories tend to define legacies. Top-five and top-ten finishes are admirable, but without wins to anchor them, a résumé can feel surprisingly thin.

Tommy Fleetwood is, without question, one of the finest English golfers of his generation. A three-time Ryder Cupper, Olympic silver medalist, and seven-time winner on the DP World Tour, Fleetwood has built an impressive global résumé. Yet one milestone continues to elude him — a victory on the PGA Tour, the sport’s most prestigious stage.

That long-awaited breakthrough will have to wait once again, following a heartbreaking finish at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. Fleetwood held a three-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round, thanks to a dazzling, bogey-free 63 on Saturday. But as the pressure mounted, so did the weight of unfinished business.

On Sunday, Fleetwood bogeyed three of the first four holes and saw his lead vanish as U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley closed the gap. However, just when it seemed like he was going to fall off, Tommy weathered the storm. Six straight pars were followed by birdies on the 11th and 13th holes to build a two stroke lead.

Fleetwood had a six-foot birdie putt on the 14th to capitalize on a bogey from Keegan Bradley and extend his lead to four, but couldn’t convert. Moments later, Bradley drained a 35-footer for birdie on the 15th, and when Fleetwood bogeyed the 16th, his lead was suddenly down to just one.

Both players made par on the 17th, setting up a dramatic finish in front of thousands of passionate fans chanting “USA, USA” around the final hole. Fleetwood found the fairway off the tee, but after a last-minute club change, his approach came up 50 feet short and settled just off the front of the green — a costly misjudgment at the worst possible moment.

Then came Keegan Bradley, rising to the moment with a brilliant approach to six feet, piling the pressure on Fleetwood. Facing a lengthy birdie attempt, Fleetwood left his lag putt over six feet short — directly behind Bradley’s ball. When he missed the par attempt, he not only opened the door, but gave Bradley a perfect read. Moments later, Captain Keegan calmly rolled in the birdie to seal the victory.

Fleetwood was clearly dejected after the round: “I’m gutted. I’m angry. When it calms down, I will look at the things that I did well, look at the things that I can learn from. Right now I would love to, you know, just go and sulk somewhere and maybe I will do, but there's just no point making it a negative for the future.”

Keegan Bradley rose to number seven in the world rankings with the win, and will be in 9th place in the U.S. Ryder Cup qualification list. He is very likely to be the first playing captain in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

Tommy’s search for his first win on U.S. soil will have to wait until August when the FedEx Cup playoffs begin. His focus must now move onto Northern Ireland and the final major of the year at Royal Portrush.

Gavin Tiernan rises from 1,340th in the world to reach the final of the Amateur Championship

The Amateur Championship is one of the purest tests of golf in the entire world. 36 holes of stroke play whittles the field down to 64 players that battle it out in matchplay until a 36-hole final marathon. Past winners include Sergio Garcia, José Maria Olazabal, and Matteo Manassero.

Gavin Tiernan, a native of County Louth, started his week in pre-qualifying for the event. Ranked at 1,340th in the world amateur golf rankings, Tiernan did not qualify automatically and had to shoot a 67 at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club to get into the field. His best result during his first year at East Tennessee State University was a 7th place finish at the SoCon Men’s Golf Championship in April.

After two solid rounds of stroke play, Tiernan found himself tied for 6th, easily advancing to the match play stage. His opening opponent? Niall Shiels Donegan of Scotland and Northwestern University — ranked 1,224 spots higher in the world. Undeterred, Tiernan edged him out on the final hole to move into the round of 32, where he faced Belgium’s Jarno Tollenaire — another player ranked over 1,000 places ahead of him. Once again, Tiernan rose to the challenge and advanced.

His fairytale run continued with impressive victories over the 673rd, 318th, and 138th ranked players in the world. Then, with a commanding 4&3 win over Ivy League champion Riccardo Fantinelli, he became the first player in history to reach the final of The Amateur Championship after coming through pre-qualifying: “If you'd told me at the start of the week I'd be in the Final, I would have been over the moon. In my head, I'm the best player here. It might not be the truth, but that's what I believe. It doesn't really matter who I'm playing against. Really I'm just playing against the golf course. Playing against myself really.”

His final opponent was Dylan Fang, the world’s 7th-ranked amateur and a recent national collegiate champion with the Oklahoma State Cowboys. What followed was a thrilling 36-hole battle that came down to the very last hole.

Tiernan mounted a courageous comeback, erasing a two-shot deficit with clutch birdies on the 16th and 17th holes, which were the 34th and 35th holes of the match. But Fang showed his pedigree under pressure, firing a precise approach to five feet on the 18th (36th overall hole) before rolling in the birdie putt to seal the victory. The victory booked him a place in The Open at Royal Portrush, as well as tee times at the U.S. Open and the Masters in 2026.

While it was a difficult defeat for the 19-year-old from County Louth Golf Club, this experience will stand to him as he continues his collegiate career in the States. He has already been named on the Irish squad for the European amateur team championship next month, and will make a push to be included in the Walker Cup team this September.

Unfortunately, some fairytales just don’t have a happy ending.

Other News and Results from the Golfing World:

• 📈 Rory McIlroy displayed some good form at the Travelers, firing a final round 65 to finish in T6, just three strokes behind Keegan Bradley

  • McIlroy: “Definitely saw some positive signs in the game overall, which was really good to see. Yeah, looking forward to getting back over to my neck of the woods for a couple weeks and be prepared for a little bit of links golf.”

• 🤕 Viktor Hovland withdrew from the final round of the Travelers with a neck injury — he has two weeks off in the schedule before the Scottish Open next month

• 🇪🇸 Miguel Angel Jimenez won his third senior major with a victory at the Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone Country Club

Coming up this week on Tour

• The PGA Tour moves onto Detroit for the Rocket Mortgage Classic

• The DP World Tour is in Grosseto, Italy for the Italian Open

• LIV goes to Bryson’s hometown for LIV Dallas

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