Tommy Fleetwood finally did it. He won his first PGA Tour title on Sunday, and it wasn’t just any tournament. He won the Tour Championship, which means he also won the season-long FedEx Cup title. He won $10 million. He won the season-long resilience trophy, too.

He clearly has learned some lessons. He taught some, too.

After finishing runner-up six times and third six times, after posting 30 top-five finishes, after banking more than $33 million—not a dime of which buys satisfaction—after 163 frustrating starts, including two agonizing self-inflicted near misses earlier this summer, Fleetwood slayed doubts and demons in the most definitive way possible.

With nothing but sour memories to summon, he held his nerve and held onto the lead down the stretch for a three-shot victory over a small but elite field.

“I’ve been a PGA Tour winner for a long time, always in my mind. Nice to do it in reality,” said Fleetwood, 34, wearing alternating emotions of happiness and relief on his face. Pride, too. Justifiably so.

A final-round two-under 68 at East Lake Golf Club wasn’t without its moments of worry for the Englishman. Heck, as he played the par-5 home hole with a three-shot lead, Fleetwood found it hard to relax. Such is the case with scar tissue.

But his 18-under 262 total beat Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley by three shots as Fleetwood became the first player since Chad Campbell in 2003 to make the Tour Championship his first career win.

After he tapped in for par, Fleetwood looked overwhelmed. But only momentarily. Then he raised both arms and let out a roar as the American crowd chanted his name.

Fellow countrymen Justin Rose, who won the 2018 FedEx Cup, and Harry Hall stood greenside in the final moments, Rose videotaping the proceedings with his phone. Each gave him a hug as Fleetwood walked triumphantly off the final green. Ryder Cup teammate Shane Lowry was there to do the same.

Twice now this year golf has witnessed a redemptive moment in Georgia. In April at Augusta National Golf Club, it was Rory McIlroy capturing the Masters and the career Grand Slam and etching his name into history.

Fleetwood didn’t have to wait as many years as McIlroy, but he had to endure disappointment over many more tournaments. Yes, he had won eight times abroad, but he still felt like he wasn’t a complete player until he put down a marker in the U.S.

“It’s a step in everybody’s career that they want to make,” he agreed. “You don’t need anything, but I wanted it. I wanted to do it.

I go back to it, this one win, it sort of completes the story of the near misses, and it has a crescendo to what has been building towards the back end of the season.

But when I go home, I’m just going to start practicing again. I’m going to start working again, and I’m going to look towards the next tournament.”

Tied with Cantlay after 54 holes just two weeks after he had surrendered the final-round lead in the first leg of the playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Fleetwood didn’t submit an impeccable round of golf, but for once he managed to erase errors with timely swings and key putts.

And he also got help from his main challengers on a day of sunshine and surprising stumbles.

Once on each nine Fleetwood secured back-to-back birdies soon after a bogey. The ones at the 12th and 13th with matching six-footers came after a two-shot swing at the 10th enabled Cantlay to briefly climb within one stroke of Fleetwood.

But having lost his swing for a few holes, Fleetwood righted a ship that had previously ran aground.

“I think I did an amazing job today of … I had to reset myself. It wasn’t easy today; it wasn’t plain sailing,” said Fleetwood, who is expected to rise from 10th to sixth in the world. “I lost my swing in the middle of the round.

I was really erratic, and I had to find my swing, really under … I don’t think trying to win a tournament is as much pressure as trying to keep your playing rights, things like that. It’s a different type of pressure. I’m not going to say it’s bigger or less, it’s just a different type of pressure. It’s a joy to be in contention and try and win golf tournaments.

“At the same time, you have to deal with those little demons that are in the back of your mind, and doubt creeps in.

You remember what you got wrong, don’t want to get it wrong again, and you have to force yourself to think of the positives. I think just as experience builds, at some point you’re going to get it right, and I did today.”

Meanwhile, the aforementioned challengers didn’t quite get it right.

Hoping for a wild-card pick from U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, Cantlay lost four shots to Fleetwood in the first two holes with a bogey-double bogey start.

Sure, he fought back gamely but eventually ran out of gas and settled for a 71, one of only two players (along with Jacob Bridgeman) to shoot over par Sunday while playing preferred lies a fourth straight day.

Russell Henley and Bradley couldn’t find their respective scoring gears, shooting 69 and 70, respectively. Meanwhile, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who trailed by four at the outset, pulled his first tee shot out of bounds for an opening bogey and later suffered a double bogey at the par-4 15th hole just as he was giving himself a glimmer of hope.

A five-time winner this year, including two majors, Scheffler settled for a 68 and tied for fourth with Cameron Young and Corey Conners, whose 62 was low for the day.

It wasn’t just the eight years of consistency on tour that have contributed to the narrative that Fleetwood was due for a breakthrough. Consider his last eight rounds; he resided among the top six on the leaderboard after each.

And then he extended that streak throughout the week at East Lake, a first in the FedEx Cup Playoffs thanks to shooting in the 60s each day.

Resilience is a bit more achievable when you’re on form. Nevertheless, you have to talk your mind into letting your body hit the shots. You have to show heart, too. That was Fleetwood’s real triumph this week.

“I think it shows how great of an attitude he has towards the game, how resilient he is,” McIlroy said.

“I enjoyed it while it lasted in a sick way,” Fleetwood said with a smile, referring to the recurring questions about his inability to close out a victory in America.

“I hope that I can give … that we can talk about plenty more things in the future, really. I will look back at all of this, and again, I feel like I keep repeating myself.

I’ll be proud of the strength that I had to show to keep coming back and showing that it can be done if you’re resilient enough and you keep putting yourself in those positions.

“I’ll look back at it and I’ll be able to tell people that I am really, really pleased that I get to talk to kids or aspiring golfers or aspiring sports people, whatever they’re trying to do, and I can genuinely talk about showing resilience or keep coming back after tough losses and keep working and all of those things and the skills that you have to use in order to put yourself there again and then finally get it done. I’m really, really pleased that I get to do that, and that I’m proof that it can happen.”