This is the comeback we all wanted. This is the golf we all want to see Rickie Fowler play.
No one enjoyed seeing the popular American plummet to 173rd in the world rankings in June 2022 and slowly disappear from the major championship scene.
Fowler played in just one major last season and he’s been at the Masters just once in the last four years – a tournament he was always fancied to succeed at one day.
He missed out on Brookline 12 months ago when Matt Fitzpatrick won and he is currently in the final year of his PGA Tour exemption status as a previous winner.
That most recent win keeping his tour card intact came at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in 2019 – but since then it has largely been a struggle.
However, having reignited his partnership with the legendary Butch Harmon back in September, as well as replacing Joe Skovron with Ricky Romano on the bag, something has clearly clicked again.
Fowler has made six top-10s this campaign, including a runner-up finish at the ZOZO Championship, and his form has culminated in a history-making round at the 2023 US Open.
[object Object][object Object][object Object]
He tied the lowest round ever in major championship golf with a 62 at Los Angeles Country Club and made 10 birdies, the most ever carded in a round at the US Open.
Fowler played alongside Jason Day, another player whose better days appeared behind him before winning the AT&T Byron Nelson in May.
“It’s definitely been long and tough,” he said afterward. “A lot longer being in that situation than you’d ever want to. But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now.
“I would say we’re starting to get maybe as close as we’ve ever been to where I was through that ’14, ’15 area.
Advertisement
“I’ve been playing fairly consistently, but a lot of it for me is what I’ve been able to get out of off weeks where I’m not playing very well and still able to make the cut and turn those into at least top 20s or top 10s and the last few years those were missed cuts and going home.
“Butch is great, just his voice and having him in your corner. He’s been around and seen a lot and been around so many great players.
“He’s coached so many guys to reach their potential. A lot of them are very different. I feel like he’s a very good golf and life coach.”
The 34-year-old is again showing the game that saw him finish in the top five of all four majors in 2014, when he was at his scintillating best.
He may not have the long locks of hair that made him such a recognisable figure on the PGA Tour, but this new-look, new father has found a new lease on life.
At the end of 2021, he and his wife Allison welcomed their first child Maya into the world, which helped him realise “there’s a lot more to life than just playing golf.”
In his long drought on tour, a win seemed a world away for Fowler, let alone a maiden major title that eluded him for so many years.
Let’s hope he’s here to stay and let’s hope this most brutal of events doesn’t extend the long and tough road.
NOW READ: Who is the amateur turning heads at the US Open?
Follow NCG on Twitter!
