The 2025 Golf Season Review
Tommy Does Golf - The Podcast
EPISODE 1
SEASON 01
22 Dec 2025
Tommy: Welcome to Tommy Does Golf, the podcast where three old timers give you our opinions on everything. Golf. I'm Tommy Long, joined by fellow PGA professionals, James Morgan and Paul Charman. With over a hundred years and counting in the golf industry between us, we are well into our back nines. We'll do our best to stay on topic, but just like our tee shots these days, this podcast could go anywhere.
We are hoping you enjoy the banter and maybe just maybe we'll share a few pearls of wisdom along the way. Let's get into it.
So 2025. It was quite a year, fellas. Let me recap and then we'll get into it. I'll start with the majors. Rory finally wins the U S Masters and in doing so, became the sixth player in modern history. To complete the career slam, the U-S-P-G-A Championship at Quail Hollow was won by world number one, Scottie scheffler.
The US Open at Oakmont was won by JJ Spaun and Scottie Scheffler claimed his second major of the year by winning the open championship at Royal Port. Rush notable wins on the U-S-P-G-A tour this year. Rory was quick out the blocks. In 2025, he won the Pebble Beach A T&T Pro-Am and also claimed victory at the Players championship.
And those two wins came before winning the green jacket in April, Ludvig Aberg won his second PGA title at the Genesis Invitational. The now 45-year-old Justin Rose claimed his 12th PGA win by taking out the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. Minwoo Lee claimed his maiden PGA tour title by winning the Houston Open.
And our very own. Ryan Fox won twice on the PGA tour, first winning the Myrtle Beach Classic and impressively backing that up by winning the Canadian Open. The FedEx Cup champion was England's Tommy Fleetwood, who finally claimed his first PGA tour win at the Tour Championship itself. Now jumping over to the European tour, Marco Penge won three times and in doing so, secured his PGA tour card for 2026.
Alex Noren chalked up two late wins. He won the British Masters and the BMW PGA championship at Wentworth. Rory McIlroy came home and he won the Irish Open on his way to winning the race to Dubai. In doing so, Rory notched up his seventh European Order of Merit title, moving him to one behind that of Colin Montgomery, and in amongst all of that, Luke Donald's team Europe defeated Keegan Bradley's team USA in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York, to retain the Samuel Ryder Trophy, so, gonna start with the Masters Key moments from Augusta James.
Thoughts, memorable moments?
James: Obviously Rory, um, the emotion that was outpoured when he hold that winning puff, but I think Justin Rose's performance was absolutely unbelievable, uh, down the stretch.
I mean, he beat it to. Force Rory to reconsidering getting into a playoff and then hitting that horrible wedge like you did into the 18th, Rory. But I think Justin Rose actually for me was the standout 'cause he's been there before. He's lost to Sergio, wasn't it? in a playoff
Tommy: 2017. Yeah.
James: Um, but then when you see, uh, how much that meant to roar it.
And then you then compare that with when Scottie Scheffler Wins a tournament and we'll cover that later on when we talk about the open. Yeah. He's like, well, I had a process. I stuck to my process and it worked. Mm-hmm. Well, Rory just wanted that so badly. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Uh, and that that's what agree. Yeah. You know, you look at that and you just think he's worked really, really hard.
Now will he carry on to work hard to keep going up? Who knows? But I, yeah. Those two were my standouts.
Tommy: Yeah. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, Pauly, it's almost a relief that Rory has completed the Slam and he has won that masters because, he must have got sick of listening to the media.
Yeah. Will he, won't he? And it must have just driven him Absolutely. Crazy. So what do you think about that?
Paul: No, I think, I think a hundred percent, you know, relief all over. Mm-hmm. On the side of, uh, McIlroy. But I actually think relief. As well from all his fans. You know, the amount of people that were sitting there watching and then going, oh no, how's he hit that shot?
He's in a perfect position. Everybody's going, yes, this is it. He's gonna do it, he's gonna do it. And then he hits this shot out of nowhere. You could put him there and I reckon a hundred times from now he would put the ball on the green a hundred times but under that extreme pressure, it just shows you that even the best players in the world can make mistakes.
Um. But at that moment, at that moment, how many people just put their head in their hands and just went, oh no, here we go. And it was a weird situation because it was obviously against Rosie, so there was a lot of kind of like. Well, you know what? If he is gonna lose, I don't want him to lose.
But if he does lose, well, no better man. For sure. No better man to take that mantle for the viewer. True for the European viewer. Absolutely. No, a hundred percent. You know, for the European viewer. But yeah, I mean, relief all around relief.
It was brilliant to see. Brilliant to see, you know.
Tommy: Yeah. It was, I think that we all felt a little bit for Justin Rose, well, felt a lot for Justin Rose, given that it was the second time you lost out in the playoff Yeah.
For the green jacket. But I think the other thing about Rory is, , I cast my mind back to that final round and on the 15th, that second shot, he took it on, he could have laid up and he took it on. And I just think
Yeah. He was like, no, I'm going for this, I'm gonna get this. And when he shoved that we shot on the last, he kinda regrouped and yeah, he got it done. But it was exhausting. I mean, we all found it exhausting. You know, it's 11 years worth of outpouring when he collapsed to his knees.
Yeah. Pretty amazing. . Pretty hard to follow that major actually, wasn't it? It was difficult. Really difficult, but we'll try. We'll go on. We're gonna go to the U S PGA championship at Quail Hollow. How did the course play? Was it a dominant or a surprise victory? I mean, James Scotty won it by five shots. I felt that once he played himself into contention, it was almost a foregone conclusion that he'd get the job done. Did you watch much of it? Was it exciting or is it the major that really kind of, I dunno. It's probably the one that I'm not glued to. Yeah,
James: Monday mornings for me it's watching golf. Um, I don't often book lessons in on Monday mornings, so it's like up until say 11 o'clock when the season's going, if there's a decent tournament on, and for the majors, it's like I block it out.
So then you see overnight and you watch Scotty and he's got his five shot lead. And I just, I mean, it was boring. Mm-hmm. And I went off and did something. Mm-hmm. And I came back about 45 minutes. Oh, you know, he's still doing all right. Yeah. And then just walked away. And I've actually put here in capital letters a boring watch.
Yeah, yeah. Um, but that's, but that's a testament to him for sure. Hundred percent. He got himself out in front. Hundred percent. And he has a process. And his process was working and no one got close Who was it? Harris, English. And Bryson DeChambeau were five shots back. Yeah. Um, you know, I was kind of hoping that Bryson was gonna make a charge.
And get the crowd going and it's just like, nah. So everyone's just like, oh, Scotty. Well done. Nice polite golfers clap. Let's move on. Yeah.
Tommy: Yeah, no, I a hundred percent agree. I mean, the thing I would say on it is that we, you know, we like to think we know our golf, but if you went out to most golf fans and you said to 'em, right, five seconds, tell me who won the majors this year.
I'm pretty sure they'd pick out Rory. 'cause they'd remember it for what it was. Yes. They'd probably pick out JJ Spaun for winning because it was kind of one out the box. Yeah. Yeah. But the other two, they're not necessarily gonna reel 'em off straight away , and go, yeah. Scotty and Scotty.
So anything to add on that, Paul? Because I'm in agreement with James?
Paul: Yeah. No, I think for the avid golfer, maybe boring, it is a bit harsh, but because I mean. Yes, it's predictable. I think it's sometimes too predictable, you know? Um, especially when you've got a guy like Scottie Scheffler and taking nothing away from the guy.
I mean, he's an amazing player, , I just think sometimes he has the ability when he is in that position to just go, I've got this. All I've gotta do is just do what I know I can do. Hit the fairway here, hit the green there, two putt, maybe get a birdie here or there, ~whatever.~
~But ~it's mine. I've got it in the bag. There doesn't seem to be any nerves or you know, when you're watching it, you don't. When sometimes when you're watching Rory, you still feel, even though he's a same caliber or golfer, you still feel that there's that moment where something's gonna happen.
Something's gonna happen. Do you know what I mean? Either Right. With Scotty, either the right or wrong with Scotty. Yeah. Yeah. With Scotty, you just think, and I think that's where the boring side comes, is that. You don't expect that. You don't expect there to be that, that moment where you go, oh, I thought that was gonna happen because he's so consistent.
So meticulous as well, and so consistent.
Tommy: We all remember seeing Tiger Woods win and you know, he hit the front and, it was like, yeah, no one's gonna catch him.
But , it was still an entertaining watch, wasn't it?
James: Oh, yeah. Because he wear, you know, a lot of players wear their hearts and their sleeves. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean. Love of him will hate him. Tyrrell Hatton. . That guy can play. Yeah. And you, you wanna watch him because you, you want to Well, I wanna see him knock it stiff, but also if he misses that putt.
Yeah, I want to hear it. I hear what's going exactly. I want to hear what he says because he wants everybody to know what he's said. He, but he has this ability to explode whatever, shout at his putt, and then it's gone. He's forgotten all about it. He moves on Scotty, but you don't know whether he is 10 under 10 over, although he's starting to show a little bit more.
Uh, let's say, not anger, but emotion. Emotion, yeah. But really at the end of the day, all it comes down to is when he's in front. I would love a Tiger Woods in his heyday to be four, five behind. Yeah. Behind. Scotty, come and go. 1, 2, 3, get within two shots and see if Scotty stays there, kicks on or not. But there's no one really that does that.
Tommy: No, that's true. Yeah. That's true. Okay, well look, let's jump forward. Let's get past that one and just head to the U S Open at Oakmont. I always look forward to the US open because I, I wanna see how the course is set up. I want to see how the players adapt to the conditions, deal with the Kneehigh rough Yeah.
Struggle around the fringes when the golf ball is pretty much, you can't even see it. Yeah. But James, what did you think of the call setup and tough conditions?
James: Yeah. ~Uh, ~they were, they were tough conditions. The course was set up tough and the conditions were tough.
Apart from JJ Spaun, what was it? 70 foot putt on the last, if he doesn't hole that, no one finishes under par. Mm-hmm. Um, and that putt, I think that's the only thing one, one of the main things I'm gonna remember is that putt, I mean, it just never looked like missing. No. And, and it's just. He had been given ~a, ~a teach from the person before him from two or three feet further away.
But you've still gotta hit that putt. I mean, that would've been so easy to three putt. . So JJ holes that, um, I think Bob McIntyre showed us that he can play at the highest level on a really tough golf course.
Yeah. Uh, I've, oh, see, I've had my doubts about him, but now he's winning tournaments. He's up there, ryder cups have done in the world of good and now, so he's just saying, well, yeah, I can do this. I can compete with the best. And he can do that. And then like Tyrrell Hatton, when he's being interviewed as the winning putt goes in, you know, and he's gone has he holed that?
And again, he had a chance, he didn't, he blew it. He wouldn't have been in the playoff anyway, basically. And it's like, oh, well, fair play to him, you know? And you think that reaction, you think, yeah, that's, that's human reaction. Uh, if it had been me, I probably would've had a few expletives and gone the jammy.
He’s gone i Can't believe he's holed it from there, fair play. Good on him and Bob MacIntyre class afterwards as well. Good on him. Yeah. So, yeah, those are my takes.
Tommy: Well, and Paul, what do you think?
Paul: you said into it, said, you said one word earlier.
Struggle. Struggle. Now. There aren't many tournaments where you are witnessing top class professionals struggle. You know? And this is one of those tournaments where you can sit there and go. Speed. Sorry, what? What have you just taken? What have you just done? How have you just actually only moved the ball three foot outta this position?
So, although for, I suppose, good golfers who actually are to, who like to watch good golf being played on a regular basis, hitting fairways, booming the ball, this tournament is more about tactics. It's more about how you handle this marathon of an event. Which is going to end up probably with a handful of people maybe finishing under par as opposed to the majority of other tournaments where your cut is sometimes four under par,
here we've got one player who finished one under path. For me, although I love watching it, and , I think it brings. Golfers closer together because everybody can relate to some of the shots that you see being played. But yeah, I dunno. For me personally, ~I, ~I still like to see good players playing well, being rewarded with good scores and taking nothing away from JJ.
Conditions are the same for every single golfer. And he endured ~the, the, ~the test of golf that it is. But you know, how, how hard do the USGA make it? How, hard do they actually set up their golf courses?
James: Very obviously, and that's a problem.
Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
Tommy: I understand your point of view. The one thing that I would say on that, thinking about it is that. When you look at JJ Spawn, I mean, we know that these boys, they all hit the golf ball a long way now. Yeah, right. You can't, you can't compete ~on the, ~on the tours without ~sort of ~hitting a big ball.
But JJ Spaun wouldn't be one of the longest out there, would he? Right. No, and the thing is, is I kind of feel like with the US open accuracy, fairways, greens, I mean, you miss greens at your peril there, you know, you might get away with it a few times, but ~if you're, ~if you're consistently missing greens and fairways, then it's only a matter of time before.
You're gonna make a treble, you know? Yeah, for sure. Um, and I kind of feel like fair play to him. He kept the ball in play. Probably, I, I haven't seen the stats, but he probably kept the ball in play and hit as many fairways and greens in Reg as anybody ~that, that, ~that week You ever look at him on the back?
Nine?
James: He had played himself outta contention on the front line, and then he played himself back into contention and the like, say it's the, the mental toughness to be. Beaten up by a golf course beaten up. Good point. But you beat yourself up.
Why? Oh, look at that. That the luckiest parents in the world been there. And some of them just go, you know what? We've been there. That's why, um, I, I mean, I love Lydia Ko. Big time because she just goes, I've never been there before. That's a challenge. Yeah. Now what score can I get from there that's gonna see, I would love that attitude.
Yeah. But, you know, you hit, you split the fairway, you get a wicked bounce, and you end up in Kneehigh rough. You're not gonna say, oh dear, bother. That's a shame. No. Yeah, that's true. No, and it will get to you eventually. Well, it'll get to a lot bit. All right. Well look, let's, let's crack on. Let's go to the open championship port rush.
Tommy: We obviously know ~that Scotty, ~Scotty got the job done, which. I think we talked about it before and we said that, he hadn't played particularly well in the Scottish Open. We saw him getting quite frustrated,on the Greens particularly. Yeah. James, what do you think ~that Scottie scheffler, ~do you think he'll win multiple open championships now that he's got his first in the trophy cabinet?
James:The open Championship's all about the weather and the draw, you know, you can have, so you get a morning draw and an afternoon draw, uh, and then they reverse for the next day. You can be on the wrong side of the draw and it can be six shot difference.
Uh, it's happened to plenty of people in the past, really good golfers who have just been done over by the weather. So whether he wins more, I dunno. I mean, it's down to him. The, the thing that I'm remembering about the open championship was that interview that he did afterwards. When he says only two minutes after the Putt's gone in, I'm moving on to the next tournament.
Yeah. And that's him being process orientated. 'cause when I, when I first heard that, I thought, that's rude. That's so disrespectful to the open championship. Um, but then when, I actually, uh, listened to the whole interview, you see him going, I'm not being disrespectful. It's just that my process was to do this, this, and this, and I did that.
Box tick, boom, move on. Yeah. And then you've got Nick Faldo going, I'm still smiling about my, my three apron championships 30 years ago, shooting 72. So it's just a different, he's got a different mindset. Yeah. So if he gets into contention, yeah, he's got the game for it. Of course he is. You know, so, uh, but how many more do I think he'll win?
I don't know these new players coming through. I mean, next time he opens at St. Andrews, I know they're trying to do some changes there, but I mean, they're gonna, if the weather's half decent, they're gonna eat that place up. They'll be hitting three woods into par fours.
Paul: Do you, do you think that his laissez-faire kind of attitude, like if it's meant to be, it's meant to be, is, is actually, does that actually work in his favor, or do you actually need that kind of like.
Hey, come on now. This is mine. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this. You know, and that emotion and the drive, and I'm not saying he hasn't got drive. ~I'm, ~I'm sure he has to be the best to be better, but so many players wear it on their sleeve. They've got it there, and they go out there and this is my tournament.
James: Scottie scheffler. You don't see that. You don't, no, no. But you don't feel that, you know what I mean? You go back to what I said right at the start. He has a process. And so if he does the process, which is there is a results, he's done the practice, he's, he's done the practice, he's done all the hard work in the gym.
He's done all those bits and pieces to get himself ready for that tournament. Yeah. And then if he follows the process on the golf course and he wins or he doesn't win, he knows he's done. He followed his process. See, he doesn't care whether he wins or loses. No. Obviously he doesn't want to lose. But if he gets an opportunity to win, he will win.
But he'll just stick to his process. And if he wins by one through his process, or if he wins by 10, he doesn't care. Yeah. No. Whereas Tiger wanted to crush people. He wanted to crush their souls. Yeah. He wanted people to hurt. Yes. And give it that. And that's me. That's done it to you. Whereas Scotty doesn't care.
He just goes, I'm gonna win the toilet. Yeah. And this is how I'm do, and I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do everything I can to prepare myself. Yeah. To be in that position. Yeah. But we'll see what happens. And he follows the process. Yeah. And, and then, and I think when you see him getting a little bit shitty, like he did in the Scottish Open, was because he, his process wasn't working.
So he obviously had to change something from the Scottish Open before he went through to the, to the open. And he did. And he did. And he got it right. amazing job done. Amazing. So, okay. So that's, that's the majors, like the most memorable for me was obviously Rory because of what it meant. What about you guys?
~I mean, ~James, what do you think has to be Rory doesn't, it has to be, I mean. Rory, a hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, no, a hundred percent Rory. Yeah. And he's European as well, isn't Yeah, I know. I know. And what do we lead on? I know, I know. Well, we leading him onto, we all leading onto to Ryder cup. So are we gonna give, there we go.
Bit of a recap. Boom.
So Luke Donald's team Europe defeated Keegan Bradley's team USA at Bethpage Black New York. James, the atmosphere was always gonna be raucous, but were you surprised by the amount of unacceptable abuse being held at the European team and their family members? And do you think that the inability of the event organizers to get it under control showed that even they weren't anticipating that level of poor behavior?
James: I wasn’t surprised at it. I was surprised at how personal it was. Right. Uh, and how it was literally just as they're about to hit the ball. There's always stuff said at Ryder Cups when you're on the away team, and they tried to prepare for that. But for me, the PGA boss after the event said, I didn't think it was that bad.
Hmm. And you're thinking, really?
Paul: Were you there?
James: Yeah, exactly. Was he there? Were you there? Were you actually there and listening to the abuse? Were you, are you that, um. One eyed Lincoln. Yeah. How, how can you ever think that that is right? And having drinks thrown at wives. I think the drink was actually thrown at Rory, but missed him and hit the wife.
Yeah. You know, so that's the sort of, I I, I was disappointed. Um, but did it fuel the Europeans on? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, when Rory turns around to someone in the crowd and says, shut the F up, and then goes and sticks it three feet from the hole, as you have to say. Right. Thank you for firing me up. And it worked.
Yeah. And they were ready as well. You know, they'd had the headsets to get themselves ready for noises. Probably weren't ready for that level of abuse. But I look at it and I think, um, it was disgusting really, if, if truth be known. But one of my mates who was actually there, he turned around and said it was actually only 5% of the crowd.
But they happen to be the ones right next to the microphones, right next to the players. And it's often the way, isn't it? Yeah. You know, it only takes a small minority to ~kind of ~ruin it for the rest of them and give 'em a bad rep. Yeah.
Tommy: Alright, so Paul, ~um, ~we know that Luke Donald's level headed calm, he's a collected individual.
Briefly tell us what you thought he did well as a captain and conversely what , Keegan Bradley got wrong.
Paul: So before I do that, I'd like to just say one thing and that is this. Okay. If the result had gone the other way mm-hmm. And the US had actually won that Ryder Cup, would we still be sitting here saying.
Oh, well the crowd was this and the crowd were that. Um, yeah, they were a bit raucous. But these guys are actually, you know, they're trained to actually deal with this. How would you feel right now knowing what we know about the crowd? Had the Europeans lost, , I think it would have soured the Ryder Cup and the name of the Ryder Cup.
Should that have happened? Had that happened? The Europeans, yeah. We'd still be up in arms about it now. We'd still be filming. We wouldn't be staying here. Oh. You know. Hey, great. Then how bad would Ireland be? Seriously, it would be, so now the organizer gotta be very clever with this is acceptable. Yes. This is not. Yeah, I think it would've changed our attitude towards the whole Ryder Cup completely. We won. Yes. The crowd were raucous. Yes, they were unacceptably, um, out of order. Mm-hmm. But we won. So therefore we've almost forgiven it. We've almost gone, Hey, you know what?
Hey, that's Ryder Cup. That's the Ryder Cup. We haven't forgotten it though, but we haven't, we haven't forgotten it. So two years, but we've accepted it. We accepted happened had we lost?
Tommy: It's a good point. It is a good point. It would've be a different story. I just hope, and I'm sure that in Ireland, especially the European fans, I have every confidence that they're gonna behave the way they should behave.
Paul: Yeah. Um, I think, yeah, totally. Going back to the question with regards to Luke Donald, Luke Donald, so I think the biggest difference between the two teams was that Luke Donald Brothers, brothers in arms.
But, with regards to Keegan, I think there was a part of him that actually felt that he should be playing in that tournament and, you know, to try and actually. Coerced a group of guys, especially I think the Americans, to perform together as a team.
There's too many things going on. You've got Patrick Cantley who's already saying, I should be paid for this. Um, and I think whatever we do, we should get paid for it.
Okay, we'll give it to charity and all these kind of things that are going on. But to actually get a group of guys like that together. To feel like part of a team. You, you have to be a team. And I think the Europeans, they were a team, not just there, but before that, you know, like I said, one player, one letter changed the European team from what it was the last time they played.
So I think Luke Donald, good captain, good guy, nice guy, knows how to talk to the players, knows how to get them. GEED up. Mm-hmm. Knows when to say, Hey boys, calm it down a little bit. Hey, listen, you know, don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. All the right things. But Keegan Bradley, I don't know. I mean, you know, I think he did a good job.
Let's say at the end of the day, singles, would it have been any different had anybody else been in charge at that time? That's the Americans. The Americans love the singles, you know, that's what they do. Yeah. They, they just bang, let's go and get it done.
Tommy: I think on that point, one thing that Europe have, and they're quite lucky to have it, is the spirit of Seve
Yeah. You know, they wanna do it for Seve and it's, amazing how that gets the team all together,
Paul: did you see Jose Maria Olazabal on the last screen, when everything had calmed down?
No. And he walked out onto the 18th on his own and just stood there and just looked up to the sky and had that moment. You have to believe that what he's doing is just going, Hey buddy, we're still doing this for you. We're still there for you.
And, a lot of that team had moments with him, didn't they? Yeah. So, you know, it's very personal James playing at home can be a big advantage. Do you think should be that Keegan Bradley worked with the USGA to set up the course correctly ~to, or, ~I think they stuff it up big time.
Uh, the players have sit. Justin Thomas has come out recently on a podcast. Uh, the Greens were too slow and the green keepers were saying they're running at 13. And these tour players are saying, why are we all leaving at three feet, two feet short? They're not 13. So they'd had rain earlier in the week.
Um, but the course wasn't set. The course was set up perfectly for the Europeans, and it was the greens were soft, so if you stuck it in the rough, we could stick it on the greens. I mean, it was, I think. Everything about that Ryder Cup was, from an American point of view, they did everything they possibly could to give the Europeans a chance.
They got the course wrong, they got the pairings wrong, they had the wrong captain. Everything about it they did wrong. Yeah. I mean, Keegan Bradley should have played and he should not have been captain. Yeah. Given the captaincy in two years time, given it to him in four years time. Yeah. Uh, but just inexperience and the course was wrong.
Just you look on that very, the first hole, Bryson DeChambeau steps up. First player, boom. Sticks. It just short of the green, right? What is it? Rum stuck it in the rough. Tyrrell Hatton sticks it the three feet. Yeah. Out the rough advantage. Shortsighted advantage. It was a half. Yeah. We've got the half they, but they chipped up.
But there's Bryson's advantage of smashing at miles and being in the middle of the fairway. Yeah. And it was taken away by Jon Rahm heading at 30 yards right of his target. Yeah. Tyrrell, stumps it. Thanks for coming. But what that did was it immediately got the crowd going because that's what they wanted to see.
They wanted to see this, you know, they wanted to see Bryson on the tee, smash it over the top of the trees to just shorter the green. Yeah. But the Europeans were then looking at it going, Hey, we can hit a Miles offline and we can still make birdie. Whereas we don't have to rely on.
Tommy: Yeah. And of course the first two days , you're dominated, and thank goodness they did.
Yeah. Well, because final day, ~regardless, ~I was pacing around that pro shop, wondering where the points were gonna come from.
Paul: But it was amazing how quickly it changed because early on. You were looking at that scoreboard going, wow, look at all that. Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. And then suddenly, literally, suddenly there was a spark. Um, I think it might've been like Justin Thomas, but there was other things like, what's his name?
Uh, well, Bryson came back. Yeah, Bryson came back, fired down, didn't he? Against Fitzpatrick. Did he end up halving that? Things like that. You know, where you think of guaranteed a point here, that's another point closer to actually, you know, getting our hands on, on the trophy.
Um, and it all starts to go a little bit awry. And in the Ryder Cup, all you need is that slight bias to go the other way. Momentum, and my God, does it change? But everything, the Europeans had enough points in the bag. They'd done the hard work. They, they had a hundred. They were, they were, they, most of them were spent and then the guys at the end stepped up.
Tommy: Alright, so season long races, let's crack on with that then. So the FedEx Cup, Tommy Fleetwood's, consistent high level throughout the entire PGA season.
Ends with him winning his first PGA tour event. Unbelievably actually, um, his first one at the Tour Championship itself, and he was crowned the FedEx champion for 2025. Paul, why do you think Tommy is so popular ~with, ~?
Paul: I think he's Mr. A nice guy. He comes across as Mr. Nice guy. You know, he's a good looking guy. Let's not take that away from him. Okay. He's a good looking guy. He's got a good mopper hair. Um, and yeah, I just think, you know, when you see him talk, when he is in front of the camera, when he is on the golf course, he's likable.
He really is a likable kind of guy, and I think people get drawn towards that kind of person, you know? Um, there, there might be a little bit of that sort of sympathy boat as well. You know, he's a nice guy. I wish he'd done better. I hope he's not gonna be one of these players that ends up.
Being a good golfer who hasn't really achieved as much as he should do. So for him to actually win that tournament, a kind of almost a Rory moment with the masters, you're going, thank God for that. Thank God he's actually done that and he's got that monkey off his bleeding shoulder.
Yeah. He just comes across as a really nice guy.
People want nice people to get through. To do well.
Tommy: He's obviously, had his fair share of second places. As soon as he's got that microphone shoved in his face five minutes after he lost it. he's just so humble and so classy in the way that he congratulates the person that's actually won that event and he says, look, my time, you know, I keep doing the same thing. Eventually my time will come. And I think that that's something that is very. endearing. Yeah, he's classy.
He's a very classy kind guy. So James , what do you think that victory and winning the FedEx Cup will do for his career?
Do you think he's gonna kick on and bag a couple of majors.
James: I mean, it's so hard to say, isn't it? But I think the first thing for me was validation. That's why I wrote down in my notes, he's worked hard. Uh, he's had setbacks, but then he's then created a plan, had another setback, created a plan, and he's got step closer and closer and closer.
And I think, uh, winning that has validated all the hard work that he's put in. Mm-hmm. And that's where he kept coming across in his interviews. Um. He's worked hard on the mental side of things as well. And also it silences the critics. So I think that the, the critics now, they, they'll nail their term and say, well, he hasn't won a major.
Of course, that's the next one they're gonna put on him. I think once you get into the FedEx Cup, you've actually gotta beat 29 other guys in. In fact, you look at it almost is the, the FedEx Cup. If you get into that last 30, it's a bit like the old days when Faldo used to have like five people he had to beat.
So now all it is, is you get into that. You can guarantee 10 guys will have a, will start badly and just not be playing well. So you've only got 20 guys. Then of those 20, there's gonna be 10 that are actually playing really, really well. So you've only gotta beat nine other guys. Whereas if you're playing in the open championship, you've got 50 guys that could win it, 60, whatever.
So whilst it's a, it's a great tournament for him to win, I want to see him win a major. I want to see him win. Two or three tournaments with Rory and Scotty in it. Yeah. Fantastic. Wouldn't it? And then that's the validation again. You know what? I am good enough to be here.
Yeah. And I think that's the thing. Percent. Uh, and I think the other thing is that, when you saw him lose to Keegan, Bradley, uh, I mean, what, he had two shots with three olds to go. That's a relatable struggle. We do that. Yeah. You, your, your average amateur. Yeah. He's having a great round. He looks at your score code and goes, I've got 36 points and I've got three holes to go and goes blob one, one.
And you go, oh God. And then how do we feel after this if someone's stuck a microphone underneath my nose and I've just bogeyed the last tile with a widge in my hand. Yeah. How are you feeling, James? Bleep, bleep, bleep. I mean, aren't you Well, you wouldn't, wouldn't talk, would you? You wouldn't, you wouldn't even be there.
Well, thing is, I wouldn't be there, wouldn't there? He's, he's been there so many times. Um, I would, if I ever got there once, I wasn't gonna be better there again.
Paul: No, I mean, you wouldn't be taking those questions. You would've actually stormed off, got in your car.
James: No, I would have missed my car. Car, but, but
Tommy: I know what you mean though, because if you, if you'd have switched the TV off. 45 minutes from the end, you'd have probably, well, we wouldn't have had our house on it 'cause we've all lost money before when we've gambled.
But you would pretty much say, yeah, Tommy, Tommy got the job done. you'd have been surprised when you turned the TV on again to, I, I remember I was in Italy and Jean Vandervelde ~was. ~Was gonna win the open. We Right. We can all remember that. Absolutely. So I'm walking around the campsite, there's a lot of French people.
I congratulate him. Yeah, well done. Ah, he's Bonjour Bonjour. I think Arnaud Massy won it in like 19, I can't even remember ~what, ~what year it was. But I'm saying, , well done. You must be really excited, , your done it and then obviously we all know what happened there, so it is not over till the fat lady sings, but I agree with you.
It would be nice to see him kick on and go toe to toe and win one of the majors, it'd be fantastic. He actually played that final round with Patrick Cantlay Yes. I dunno how many shots he beat him by in the end. But, apparently Cantley grabbed his driver out when he walked off the 18th green.
He smashed it into the ground three times. Killing a snail. And he was asked why he did it. He said it'd been heckling him all week and he was not happy about it. So finally we are gonna talk about the Race to Dubai winner, Rory McIlroy. James thoughts.
James: Think Rory's just gonna keep on winning it. So, uh, I look at it and go, Colin Montgomery was probably more impressive 'cause he won seven in a row. Mm-hmm. That's seven years of domination. Mm-hmm. And also , if I'm right, if you go that far back, the points from the other majors didn't count.
So Rory plays in all the big tournaments. Mm-hmm. There's co sanctioned events in America, so when the bigger players play, there's bigger prize money. More points. Yeah. So, 'cause he's a consistent player, he turns up on the last event and he's got such a lead, it's hard to catch. So from that point of view, um, but does he get to a nine and 10?
I think so. I think he's young enough. He's fit enough. And most importantly, he's hungry enough driven. He wants, he wants it, he wants it to be 10. He, he wants a legacy. Yeah. Again, we go back to Scotty, does he want a legacy? He doesn't care. He doesn't care if he doesn't want anything else ever again.
I've done what I've done, I've done my process. Rory wants to have his name in highlights.
Tommy: Let's just finish this up. Highlight of the season i'm gonna give you mine and then you boys can fly in.
My one was Shane Lowry holding that winning part and breaking into the jig on the 18th green. , I shared in his feeling of sheer relief, elation, and joy all at the same time. I mean, obviously there were many other moments throughout the year that were spectacular, but for me, that one was my most memorable.
What about you, James? What was your most memorable of the year? I was thinking about this and I think that the Rory thing is a bit cliche and all the other bits and pieces, and then I, my standout for the year was Justin Rose. Just how the guy in his mid forties is taking on guys 10, 15 years younger than him and his ages.
No better. If you want it and you are gonna work hard, you can get it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly what he's done. And, and the other players now, I mean, Justin Rose five years ago, it was almost like he was ah. You know, but he did one of us open now. Now look at him. Yeah. Amazing. He won, another event on the US tour year.
Yeah. he picks it up and you think he's got a chance, wouldn't. Absolutely. And he's 45 and everyone thinks anyone over 30 five's toast. Yeah. Yeah. I, I can't go away from the Rory moment again. I think, you know, in my heart, that's the one I want to go with. I also agree with Rosie. Well, we could do a whole podcast on Rosie and we probably will, let's do one on him, but not right now, boys. Great chat. Thanks for that. We will see you next time. If you've made it this far, we hope it's because you've enjoyed listening to Tommy Does Golf. To make sure you never miss our podcast, please hit Follow.
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