Rickie Fowler back on the leaderboards

Rickie Fowler

Rickie Fowler is an American professional golfer from Murrieta, California. He had an impressive amateur career and won two matches at 2007 Walker Cup at Royal County Down.

He turned professional in 2009 and played in his first Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in 2010.

While he beat Rory McIlroy to claim the 2011 Kolon Korea Open, he had to wait until 2012 to claim his first PGA Tour event at Wells Fargo Championship, where he beat McIlroy in a play-off.

A fan favourite, who is known for his all orange attire for the final rounds of tournaments, he shot four rounds in the 60s to finish in a tie for second behind McIlroy in The Open at Hoylake in 2014.

Valhalla was the venue for 2014 PGA Championship and Fowler shot a final round of three under to clinch his second successive runner-up finish in a Major behind McIlroy, who has since gone eight years without a Major win.

Fowler’s impressive run at majors in 2014 gave him a well-earned Ryder Cup spot at Gleneagles were he ended up losing his singles match 5 & 4 to McIlroy.

Fowler shot a unbelievable final round of 67 to force a play-off with Sergio Garcia at The Players in 2015 and went on to beat Garcia in a play-off to win his first PGA Tour event in three years.

Winning at Sawgrass showed that Fowler was able to beat the best players in the world at one of the best courses throughout the world.

Gullane hosted 2015 Scottish Open and this was another special week for Fowler as he won his first event on the European Tour. His final round performance was excellent and it’s a great record to say that you have won at both Sawgrass and Gullane.

The 2015/2016 season was quiet for the American but he managed to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after a final round of 69.

Fowler rose to fourth in the Offical World Golf Rankings after his win in Abu Dhabi. Fowler really enjoyed representing America at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil and got some revenge over McIlroy by beating him in the foursomes at the 2016 Ryder Cup, ending up on the winning side at Hazeltine National.

In 2017, he won the Honda Classic at PGA National, which is a brutal layout with water on multiple holes. The American shot rounds of 66, 66 and 65 and a one-over-par final round was good enough to win. Fowler continued his great form in 2018 as he came second at The Masters. Fowler shot two rounds of 64 to win the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open and this was his most recent win on the PGA Tour.

A lot has happened to Fowler since 2019 as he left his long-time coach Butch Harmon and dropped outside the top 100 in the world golf rankings. Fowler decided to return to his former coach Harmon for 2022/2023 season. The American showed signs of improvement as he finished tied for 11th at 2023 Farmers Insurance Open.

He continued his return to form and was swinging the club really well as he had a hole-in-one at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. He ended up finishing in a tie for 10th in Scottsdale and went on to tie for 20th at The Genesis Invitational.

The good memories of winning at The Players came back to him before starting the 2023 edition. He hit some great shots throughout the tournament which included a birdie at the iconic par-three 17th en route to finishing tied 13th.

Fowler is currently ranked 59th in the world and needs to get back inside the top 50 to play in all the big events throughout 2023. The game of golf is in a good place when Fowler is back in contention at tournaments.