The Sunday pin at TPC Sawgrass’ seventeenth gap sits about 5 metres from sure doom, with a watery grave a number of strides to the fitting, and certainly across the complete iconic island inexperienced.
A extra starkly symbolic shot that pits danger in opposition to reward, glory in opposition to despair, and {golfing} immortality in opposition to anonymity, doesn’t exist on the PGA Tour.
And so, to know why Rickie Fowler mania as soon as gripped the golf world, because it all of a sudden is once more, we have to return to that stage greater than eight scarcely-believable years earlier.
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Fowler birdied that gap thrice on one Sunday afternoon on the 2015 Gamers Championship, twice in a playoff, together with the final time when he stuffed his all-or-nothing tee-shot to four-feet and kicked within the successful putt.
Fowler’s unbelievable play noticed him defeat Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner in a marathon four-hole playoff that gave him A$2.65m — and nonetheless sits within the pantheon of nice PGA Tour finishes.
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The triumph was simply Fowler’s second on the PGA Tour, and got here nearly precisely three years after his first on the Wells Fargo Championship.
Already certainly one of golf’s hottest younger stars, who in 2014 joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the one gamers to complete inside the highest 5 of all 4 majors in a single 12 months, the then 26-year-old wanted a giant win to rubber stamp his potential.
By dicing with catastrophe to return out on prime, Fowler lastly had it.
What adopted makes no extra sense now than it could have on the Sunday of that would-be watershed second.
Greatness didn’t materialise for Fowler, prefer it did for his shut pals Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas who share 5 majors.
Fowler gained as soon as extra in 2015, however his solely different PGA Tour wins earlier than this month have been the Honda Traditional in February 2017, and the 2019 Phoenix Open.
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Titles weren’t flowing however Fowler nonetheless remained among the many greatest on this planet in 2019 when he was ranked world No.10, down solely six locations from his highes spot in 2016.
However an absence of victories provides beginning to doubts, and doubts — left unchecked for lengthy sufficient — can devour a participant’s swing to the purpose of no return.
Fowler was all of a sudden pushed down that steep path with these forecasts of greatness being made to look silly by confused swing ideas and an ice-cold putter.
As for the way unhealthy issues grew to become, legendary coach Butch Harmon mentioned Fowler had “hit all-time low” when the troubled golfer despatched out an SOS for a reunion.
Fowler himself mentioned working together with his former teacher John Tillery was like “talking one other language” and that whereas the pair appreciated one another as individuals, collectively, “it by no means actually clicked”.
Fowler plummeted as little as world No.185 in September final 12 months, whereas he solely scraped into 2022’s 125-man FedEx Cup playoffs because the final participant to make the minimize.
Amid the depths of that disaster, some advised that Fowler was the archetypal goal for LIV Golf, who was constructing a roster of big-name gamers that have been not of their prime.
Fowler, who remained one of many PGA Tour’s most recognisable and well-liked stars regardless of his type woes, would’ve represented an enormous coup for LIV Golf given his affect.
LIV Golf recognised this and was reported to have made Fowler a suggestion within the ballpark of $75 million (A$110m) to leap ship.
However identical to at TPC Sawgrass’ seventeenth inexperienced all these years earlier, Fowler selected to go all-in on himself as a substitute.
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The gamble was admirable on the time, however given the depths of his disaster, few would’ve blamed Fowler for taking the cash and operating for the LIV hills.
No resurgence was in sight — a minimum of to these on the outer.
“I mentioned firstly of the 12 months that Rickie Fowler was going to win once more and all people thought I used to be loopy as a result of it had been so lengthy and he had performed so poorly,” mentioned Harmon, who started instructing Fowler once more in September.
Now 34, Fowler has confirmed that irrespective of how crippling a participant’s doubts can turn out to be, they needn’t be terminal.
His resurgence was actual, and was finally backed by very actual outcomes.
In October, he tied for second on the Zozo Championship earlier than three-consecutive top-20 finishes on the west coast swing; T11, T10 and T20 on the Farmers Insurance coverage Open, Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational respectively.
By the point of this 12 months’s PGA Championship, Fowler had all of a sudden made 10-consecutive cuts and there have been whispers of the potential for a real resurgence.
Lacking the minimize on the main didn’t assist the credibility of these claims, nor did the truth that he missed qualification for the Masters.
The previous month, nonetheless, has effectively and really silenced any doubt that Fowler is again.
The Californian was a shock 54-hole chief on the US Open, the place a disappointing last spherical of 75 was all that separated him from a surprising maiden main victory.
He settled for a tie for fifth, and a confidence enhance that he continued to journey all the way in which to this month’s Rocket Mortgage Traditional.
Fowler posted four-straight rounds within the sixties, and shot down Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa in a playoff with a 12-foot birdie putt that gave him his first PGA Tour win in additional than 4 years.
In victory, Fowler stood nonetheless, fingers rested on his putter and easily breathed a sigh of aid earlier than his caddie wrapped him in a bear hug.
“It’s simply good to have this one out of the way in which,” Fowler mentioned. “I’m clearly going to soak this one in and rejoice a bit.
“It has simply been an extended highway. I’ll get emotional in some unspecified time in the future.”
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Requested about that gruelling journey again to the winners’ circle, Fowler added: “(I) needed to maintain placing the time in, maintain grinding, maintain pushing.
“Then began to see some optimistic outcomes and to construct some confidence and momentum final fall.
“A number of nice stuff this 12 months. I knew it was a matter of time the way in which I’ve been enjoying.”
Few the place happier than Harmon. However whereas it was his swing adjustments that paved the way in which again to success for Fowler, it didn’t scratch the floor of why the grasp trainer was elated.
“When he gained in Detroit it meant extra to me than most of the majors as a result of I knew how far he had fallen,” Harmon informed The Occasions.
“It meant rather a lot personally as a result of I like the younger man. I’ll let you know how good he’s; if I had a daughter I’d need him to marry her.”
He added: “Make no mistake, that is the beginning of the remainder of his profession.”
The remainder of Fowler’s profession now begins with the Open Championship at Hoylake, which presents one other sentimental providing for his legion of followers.
The final time the Open was held at Hoylake in 2014, Fowler was the runner-up to Rory McIlroy.
That is likely to be an excellent omen for the resurgent American who has catapulted up the world rankings to No.22, whereas he has amassed $7,502,786 (A$11.1m) in prize cash this season alone.
His probabilities of successful the Open Championship are — and this may occasionally nonetheless really feel unbelievable to learn, as it’s to jot down — real looking.
Even with no miracle win, nonetheless, there’s consolation in that in a recreation which may play on minds and our bodies to eat even probably the most gifted gamers, certainly one of its most adored stars is again the place he belongs.
It could be the best story in males’s golf this 12 months.