The week after a major golf tournament used to be a proverbial week off for the PGA Tour’s elite, but the powers-that-be in the PGA Tour recognized this and wanted to make a change. They wanted to ride the wave of success after a major and included a signature event the week after the first three major tournaments of the season.

For those who don’t know, a signature event means a limited field, typically with no cut, and the Tour’s best players in the field. This was the case for the Travelers Championship this past weekend, the week after the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club and the final signature event of the 2025 calendar year.

This event did not disappoint.

A star-studded field was matched with a star-studded leaderboard from start-to-finish, and when it came down to the final day of the tournament it looked as if it would be Tommy Fleetwood who would finally break through and claim his first PGA Tour victory of his career.

Until he didn’t…

With four holes to play, it was Keegan Bradley, the United States Ryder Cup captain in 2025, found himself three behind the Englishman; only then did he begin to dig in. A birdie on No. 15 pulled him closer before a bogey from the blade of Fleetwood came on the next hole. Facing a one-stroke deficit entering the 18th, Bradley put his second shot within 6 feet of the pin, while Fleetwood failed to find the green.

When Fleetwood was unable to save par from inches behind Bradley’s ball, the 39-year-old New England native stepped up and made his birdie, both arms flying in the air as he captured his second tournament title in the last three years.

What a finish, but truly a tale of two narratives. There was the come-from-behind win of Bradley, and yet another crushing loss of Fleetwood. For Bradley, he knew how crazy the ending of the tournament was for him.

“Really, really crazy,” Bradley said of the finish. “I felt like I was just too far behind the whole day. I was just chasing, chasing. And then after that bogey on 14, I just [thought] anything can happen around here. But I just had that feeling that I was just too far behind the whole day, but I came in here and made the putts when I needed to.”

Bradley’s signature win catapults him up the United States Ryder Cup standings, to the point where many are wondering if he will be the first playing captain since Arnold Palmer did in back in 1962. Either way, Bradley stood by his original statements when he was named the captain that he would only play if he played his way onto the team.

Don’t look now, but Bradley is on the cusp of doing just that with the Open Championship just weeks away, the fourth and final major of the 2025 season.

The other narrative which was lingering in the back of fans’ minds was the Fleetwood collapse. Using such a term may sounds harsh, but there is no other way to put it considering how he faltered down the stretch.

Unlike other players on the tour, Fleetwood stood in front of media after the loss and was honest with not just how he was feeling, but the state of his game.

“I’m upset now, I’m angry,” Fleetwood said after the round. “… There was things that I definitely can do better, and I have to do better. … When it calms down, the most stupid thing to do and the worst thing to do would be make a week like this a hindrance to what you do going forwards. I obviously played great, I put myself in a great position, I was leading the tournament for 71 holes. I just want to make sure that I can put myself in this position as soon as possible again and try and correct what I did this time.”

Profound words by Fleetwood after such a disaster finish to what could have been a career-changing moment. Instead, Fleetwood now continues the distinction of having the most Top 10 finishes, 42, without a win in the last 40 years of PGA Tour play. That’s a statistic you don’t want to be leading in, no matter the circumstances.

Next up on the PGA Tour is the Rocket Classic, with just a few short weeks before the 2025 Open Championship.

Jeff Hartman is the host of the Fairways & Dreams podcast, and the latest show can be heard in the podcast player below: