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Fleetwood triumphs at Tour Championship for elusive first PGA Tour title | The Express Tribune
WASHINGTON:
Tommy Fleetwood ended an agonizingly long wait for a first PGA Tour title on Sunday, out-dueling Patrick Cantlay down the stretch to win the Tour Championship and pocket the $10 million top prize and FedEx Cup playoffs crown.
England’s Fleetwood, a seven-time DP World Tour winner whose 30 prior top-fives on the US circuit included six runner-up finishes, fired a two-under-par 68 for an 18-under-par total of 262 and a three-shot triumph at East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia.
Two weeks after he let a late Sunday lead get away in the St. Jude Championship, Fleetwood finished three strokes clear of former FedEx Cup champion Cantlay and world number five Russell Henley.
“I’m just so happy that I got it done and happy with my work ethic,” Fleetwood said. “And I’ll continue to try and get better and try and be the best that I can be.”
Tied with Cantlay for the lead to start the round, Fleetwood rolled in a 19-foot birdie at the par-three second.
He gave a stroke back at the fifth, where he was in the right rough off the tee, but pushed his lead to three strokes with birdies at the sixth and seventh — where he fired out of a fairway bunker to 12 feet.
Fleetwood preserved the advantage with a great par save at the eighth, but another errant tee shot at 10 led to a bogey.
Suddenly his lead was down to one stroke as Cantlay rolled in a five-foot birdie at the 10th.
“I was a bit erratic today at times and I was really proud of how I found my swing again on the, like 11th or 12th hole,” Fleetwood said.
Cantlay, the 2021 FedEx Cup champion who claimed the most recent of his eight US tour titles in 2022, got off to a disastrous start with a bogey at the first and a double-bogey at the second.
But he steadied with a birdie at the third and added another at the par-five sixth, were he fired out of a greenside bunker to three feet.
But after the two-shot swing at the 10th brought him closer, Cantlay let the pressure drop.
He was in the bunker short of the green on the way to a bogey at the 11th.
Both Fleetwood and Cantlay birdied the 12th, and Fleetwood’s lead was back to three strokes after he rapped in a six-foot birdie at the 13th — where Cantlay’s eight-foot birdie effort circled the cup but didn’t drop.
Fleetwood bogeyed the par-three 15th, but after Cantlay’s bogey at 16 the Englishman went to the 17th with a three-shot lead and to the delight of a throng of fans finally closed out the win.
“I don’t know, when you’ve lost it so many times a three-shot lead coming down the last doesn’t feel like that many,” admitted Fleetwood, who said he finally felt safe when he chipped to about eight feet at the par-five finishing hole.
“You just keep learning, don’t you,” Fleetwood said. “This is just hopefully one win, the first of many to come. You can’t win plenty if you don’t win the first one.”
Cantley carded a one-over par 71 and was joined on 265 by Henley, wo hd two birdies and one bogey in his one-under 69.
World number one Scottie Scheffler, whose five victories this year include major titles at the PGA Championship and British Open, struggled to find consistency.
But after rebounding from a double-bogey at the 15th with a birdie at 16 he signed for a two-under 68 that left him tied for fourth on 266 with Canadian Corey Conners and American Cameron Young.
Conners charged up the leaderboard with an eight-under-par 62 while Young posted a 66.
US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley capped another strong week with an even-par 70 that left him tied for seventh on 267 with Justin Thomas and Sam Burns.
The 39-year-old’s solid play this season has stoked speculation he could name himself a playing captain for the Ryder Cup match play showdown with Europe next month.
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Afghanistan’s captain Rashid Khan says his team have no “specific targets” despite producing groundbreaking performances in recent ICC global events, ahead of a T20 international tri-series starting Friday.
Rashid’s men face Pakistan in the opening game in Sharjah, with the United Arab Emirates the other side taking part in the event which serves as a warm-up for next month’s Asia Cup, also in the UAE.
Afghanistan reached the semi-finals of last year’s T20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean, and narrowly missed out on reaching the last four at the ODI Champions Trophy in Pakistan earlier in 2025.
Those performances followed an impressive showing at the 2023 one-day World Cup, when the Afghans produced statement wins over England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“We do not have specific targets, and we do not want to put extra pressure on our players,” Rashid said Thursday when asked if Afghanistan are targeting the Asia Cup title.
“Our target is to play the brand of cricket we have played over the years. For us, the main target is to put in 200% effort on the ground,” he added.
“I think we have been doing well in the ICC events and although we haven’t played T20I cricket over the last few months, the guys have been playing in T20 leagues around the world and that has helped.”
Afghanistan beat Pakistan 2-1 in a T20I series at the same venue in 2023.
The 16-man Afghan squad for the tri-series includes fast-rising mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar along with fellow spin bowlers Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid.
The Asia Cup gets under way on September 9, as teams ramp up their preparations for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Contrary to Afghanistan, Pakistan’s fortunes are dipping after they crashed out of the last T20 World Cup in the group stage before failing to win a match at the Champions Trophy.
This year they lost a T20 series in Bangladesh 2-1 but overcame the West Indies by the same margin.
Under new captain Salman Agha, Pakistan are going through a transition with former skippers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan out of the T20 squad.
“We are trying to build a team and this tri-series and then the Asia Cup will be a good opportunity to achieve that,” said Agha.
“We know both these events will be challenging but we are ready.”
All three teams in the tri-series will play each other twice, with the top two to face off in a final on September 7.
Besides Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UAE, the Asia Cup will also include defending champions India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman and Hong Kong.
Lionel Messi admitted to “playing with fear” as he returned from injury to score twice in Inter Miami’s 3-1 Leagues Cup semifinal win over Florida rivals Orlando City.
Messi converted a 77th-minute penalty at Chase Stadium and then added another goal in the 88th minute — after combining with Jordi Alba — as Miami came back from a goal down to clinch a place in the final.
“I wanted to be here,” Messi said after the game. “When I came back against [LA] Galaxy [on August 17] I felt some discomfort, I didn’t feel comfortable, but I wanted to play the game.
“It was really important to be here because it’s a difficult opponent, they’d beaten us in the two games we played against them this year. In the first half I was playing with a bit of fear, but after that I felt a bit [more] free.”
Orlando had beaten Miami 4-1 when the teams last met on Aug. 11, with Messi absent.
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The Argentina star has been struggling with a muscular injury in his right leg this month, and made a brief return against the Galaxy, before coming back into the team on Wednesday.
Miami will now play Seattle Sounders in the Leagues Cup final on Sunday, after they defeated LA Galaxy 2-0 in the other semifinal.
It will be Miami’s second appearance in the final in two years, after they won the tournament in 2023, while in 2024 they were eliminated in the round of 16.
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