Earlier, last month, was the official end to the major professional golf tournaments of 2025–the final game of the FEDEX Cup.

I know that many of you don’t follow golf, so I won’t bore you with the details. But, perhaps, the best headline of the whole year in competitive, professional golf came out of that final match.

A journey-man golfer, a guy who had tried 163 times to win a golf tournament but without success…would finally win one, and it would be for the whole “shebang,”

Tommy Fleetwood, who had probably come in second on more golf tournaments than any other player currently playing, would win the big one–the one with the most money and a lot of prestige, the FEDEX Cup.

When you watch Tommy Fleetwood play, you would say that he is a bit “out of his league.” He is shorter and slighter than most players. He has long hair and looks a bit like one of the old “hippies” from the ’60’s.

Yet, Fleetwood has a quality which is probably more important than any other in the world of sport–he is persistent. He wouldn’t take “No” for an answer. He kept coming back again and again and after 163 starts as a professional golfer–he finally won.

There is a big lesson here. Remember the old saying: “If at once you don’t succeed, try, try again!” There is real truth in it.

Most people who have a skill or a passion are like Tommy Fleetwood. They are good, they love what they do. Yet, life is not a straight line. We can hit roadblocks, have a bad day, or just be out-competed.

But, this is where perseverance comes in. Many will give up and say: “Well, I guess it is not meant to be.” And, they will shift their interest to other things.

Then, there are people like Tommy Fleetwood who say: “I know I can do it. I am going to stay with it until I win!”

It reminds me a bit of a children’s book that my mother used to read to us as kids about the “little engine that could.” It was about an engine pulling a train and going up a hill. It kept chugging slowly along saying: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”

Then it finally got over the top of the hill, and coming down the other side in a faster cadence the chugging changed to: “I know I can, I know I can, I know I can!”

There is something to be said for perseverance. Congratulations, Tommy Fleetwood, on winning the FEDEX Cup!

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.