Rickie Fowler Quiets the Critics With Players Championship Win
- Dan Hauser
- 11 May, 2015
Last week, golf.com published an anonymous poll of players on the PGA Tour, asking them a wide variety of questions. One of the questions was who they thought was the most overrated golfer on the Tour. 24% went with Rickie Fowler, saying he and Ian Poulter were the two most overrated guys on the PGA Tour.
Fowler made his fellow competitors eat those words Sunday, as the Loxahatchee River resident put on a historical display coming down the stretch to capture The PLAYERS Championship for his second career PGA Tour win.
“If there was any question,” said Fowler, patting the top of the trophy, “I think this right here answers anything you need to know.”
Fowler started Sunday three shots off the lead held by Chris Kirk. Through 12 holes he was five off the lead and it seemed once again that he would have to settle for “almost”.
Then something clicked.
“I was out of the golf tournament through 12 holes and we managed to fight our way back in,” Fowler said.
It all started on 13, when Fowler drained a 12 and a half footer for birdie. He parred the 14th and then turned the jets into overdrive. From that point forward what he did was truly historic.
He birdied 15, stuck a 3 wood with his second shot on 16 for an eagle, stuffed his second shot for birdie on the intimidating par 3 island green 17th, and hit a 331 yard bomb of the tee on 18 on his way to a birdie. When he walked off the 18th green, he had played his final six holes of the day at 6-under. In addition, the 11 strokes it took him to play those final three holes was a record for fewest in that three hole stretch in PLAYERS history. He sat at 12-under and in the lead in the clubhouse, then came the most nerve racking moments of the day.
Having been so far off the lead when the day started, he had to wait and watch as waves of players came through, all with realistic chances of tying him or even getting to 13-under and eliminating him from contention.
Sergio Garcia made a 43 foot putt for birdie on 17 to tie Fowler at 12-under. He then missed a 20 footer for birdie on 18 that would have won it in regulation, instead settling for par and matching Rickie at 12-under in the clubhouse.
In the group behind Garcia, Ben Martin birdied 17 to match Garcia and Fowler at 12-under, before failing to get up and down for par on 18 after a bad tee shot and getting eliminated at 11-under.
The biggest threat for Fowler might have come from the final group of the day though, Kevin Kisner birdied 16 and 17 to match Fowler at 12-under. After he hit his approach shot to within 10 feet, it appeared that Kisner would snatch The PLAYERS trophy in his first trip to TPC Sawgrass. He pushed his birdie putt right by inches and just like that, we were headed to the first ever three hole aggregate playoff in PLAYERS history.
Fowler said he played like he had “nothing to lose” considering where he was through 12 holes on Sunday and it showed. After all three parred the opening 16th hole of the playoff, Fowler once again stepped up to the 17th hole and went flag hunting. In regulation, he hit it to 6 feet for his birdie. In overtime, he did it once again, draining his birdie to get to 1-under. He hit a 338 yard bomb off the tee on 18, and while he came up short on his second shot, salvaged par to finish the 3-hole playoff at 1-under.
He still wasn’t done yet though. Kisner matched him on all three holes, going par-biride-par as well. Garcia parred all three holes and was eliminated, but Kisner and Fowler had to go back to 17 AGAIN to try and settle it in sudden death format. This time Fowler stepped up to the tee and stuffed it to four feet for a tap in birdie. Kisner couldn’t sink his, giving Fowler the win. In total, Fowler played the iconic 17th three times, and never had a putt longer than seven feet.
Fowler admitted after the win Sunday that he chuckled when he heard that he had been deemed “overrated” but you could tell there was some motivation there to prove the doubters wrong.
“I was always looked at as only having one win on TOUR,” Fowler said. “I always felt that I needed to put myself in position to win more often, and I did that last year (with top-5s in each major). I wasn’t able to end up as the last guy standing. It feels good to be in that position.”
Fowler got his on Sunday. He might have been chucking during the week, but Sunday night, it was Fowler who finally had the last laugh.
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
