No wonder PGA Tour pros branded Rickie Fowler as The Most Overrated Player in Golf in an anonymous survey conducted by Sports Illustrated that was published last month before The Players Championship.
All Rickie did in 2014 was become the third player in history to finish in the top five in all four majors the same year, joining a couple of has-beens named Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. And Rickie was only 10th in the world rankings after the season-ending Tour Championship. The slacker. He also pocketed a paltry $5.9 million on the course in 2014 and only $8.7 million in endorsements for combined earnings of $14.6 million, ranking him 12th in Golf Digest’s money-list rankings going into 2015. Even three old guys named Nicklaus, Palmer and Player, who don’t play much competitively anymore, made more money than Fowler. How embarrassing.
Rickie’s increasing popularity with golf fans, especially the youngsters who wear his neon colors and oversized caps, must follow him around the course and line up for his autograph because they feel sorry for him. Yeah, that has to be it.
And how else do you think he wound up with a traffic-stopping, swimsuit-model girlfriend? Pity, right?
Some in the media were comparing Fowler to Anna Kournikova, Danica Patrick and Tim Tebow – sports luminaries with high Q ratings and big endorsement contracts that are disproportionate to their athletic achievements.
All of the above must explain why 24 percent of the Tour pros polled by SI proclaimed Fowler as overrated, tying him with another colorfully attired pro named Ian Poulter. Also on the O-list were two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson (12 percent) and fellow Ryder Cup member Hunter Mahan (8 percent).
In all seriousness, I’m guessing envy and jealousy had more to do with Rickie’s prominent place on the list than anything else. The cowards who hid behind the poll’s anonymity probably wish they were as popular and wealthy as Fowler, who was born in Anaheim, grew up in Murrieta, learned to play the game at Murrieta Valley Golf Range and won two CIF state titles for Murrieta Valley High before heading to Oklahoma State.
Is Rickie over-publicized? Perhaps. But that’s the media’s fault, not his.
Is he over-hyped? Perhaps. But the marketing people at Cobra-Puma Golf, the ones who pay him the big bucks to endorse their products, want it that way.
But overrated? Not since renowned swing instructor Butch Harmon began working with him in 2013.
Fowler silenced his critics, as well as the anonymous and envious Tour wannabe-Rickies, by winning The Players Championship in spectacular and dramatic fashion last month. Trailing leader Sergio Garcia by five strokes with six holes to play in the final round, Fowler went on a history-making tear. He played the final six holes at TPC Sawgrass in 6-under par to get into a playoff with Garcia and Kevin Kisner before sticking a gap wedge inside 5 feet on the island-green 17th hole for a clinching birdie on the fourth extra hole.
Fowler finished birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie on the final four holes of regulation, becoming the first player to win a PGA Tour event by going 5 under on the final four holes. Adding the four playoff holes, he shot 8 under over the final 10 holes on Sunday. And he birdied the water-guarded 17th three times in 90 minutes en route to his second PGA Tour title and a $1.8 million winner’s check. At TPC Sawgrass! Take that, Pete Dye!
Overrated?
“I laughed at the poll,” Fowler said afterward, patting the Waterford crystal trophy next to him in the media interview room. “But, yeah, if there was any question, I think this right here answers anything you need to know.”
Amen to that. But you know being dismissed by his peers had to be a motivating factor during Players week and could still be moving forward.
“If there’s a time I need something to give me a kick in the butt, then I can think of that (SI poll) and it will put me in the right frame of mind to take care of business,” he said.
And then The Most Overrated Player in Golf and his swimsuit-model girlfriend boarded a private jet and went to the Bahamas to celebrate.