Brandel Chamblee claims unseen Tommy Fleetwood moment cost him title

As Keegan Bradley revelled in the euphoria of his eighth PGA Tour crown, Tommy Fleetwood was left to lick his wounds as his American drought continued.

Fleetwood’s crushing near miss at the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands on Sunday came just when it looked like the man from Merseyside was going to get over the line.

Three ahead of Bradley with three holes to play, Fleetwood bogeyed the 16th and 18th, with the US Ryder Cup captain sweeping in with a birdie on the final hole to snatch the title.

In a dramatic climax, Fleetwood changed club with his approach from the middle of the fairway and could only muster an iron shot to the front edge of the green.

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From there, Fleetwood hit a weak first putt to around six feet and missed, with Bradley seizing the moment to take home the $3.6million victory.

Fleetwood’s nervy six-footer veered just right of the hole which allowed Bradley to capitalised with his winning putt just inside his rival’s mark.

Yet upon closer inspection, some are convinced that Fleetwood could curse some pretty cruel luck after his ruinous finish.

A close-up video replay appears to show Fleetwood’s ball deviating away from its line just as it reached the hole, and Brandel Chamblee sympathises with the Englishman.

“Tommy Fleetwood’s short putt on the 18th hole of the @TravelersChamp clearly hit something that caused it to dart right and miss,” the former tour pro turned NBC analyst wrote on X.

“On the @GolfCentral set last night, after he won, Keegan Bradley told @RichLernerGC and me that Fleetwood’s putt “broke” more than he thought, but that he —from almost the exact same line—played less break because he believed his read over what he had just seen.

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“I feel bad for Tommy, but you’ve got to hand it to Keegan for the shots he played at the last and the belief he showed in an incredible reversal of fortune.”

Fleetwood, meanwhile, now has 42 top-ten finishes on US soil without lifting a title.

This was his second runner-up after a close call at the Canadian Open in 2023, and the fact he surpassed the $30million mark in PGA Tour career earnings was of little solace after a desperate finish.

“It’s a crappy way to finish,” Fleetwood said afterwards. “I didn’t really feel like I hit that many bad shots execution-wise, just sort of a couple of bad decisions and didn’t clean them up, which is pretty poor and things that I have to work on.

“Right now I would love to just go and sulk somewhere and maybe I will, but there’s just no point making it a negative for the future. Really, just take the positives and move on.”

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.