Rickie Fowler could’ve taken the easy way out — instead, he’s proven all his cynics wrong
When the Saudi-backed LIV tour came after the golf world, Rickie Fowler was one of their top targets. He’s a huge off-course draw, and his on-course form had declined. It would’ve been the perfect chance for him to take the money and run. But he didn’t. Since, Fowler has climbed back from 169th in the world to 20th*. He’s a legitimate contender for the U.S. Ryder Cup team heading to Rome in August, which no one could’ve predicted a year ago. This week at the PGA Championship in Rochester, he has a real chance to reintroduce himself to the golf-watching public.
*according to DataGolf’s rankings
It was May of 2021. Rickie’s golf game had never, ever been in a worse place. In fact, he was in danger of missing out on the 2021 Masters, coming off ten consecutive appearances from 2011–2020. He was hovering around 100th in the world. At this, Fowler’s lowest point to date, six-time major champion and golf commentator Nick Faldo chose to twist the knife. In response to a tweet about Fowler’s chances, Faldo quipped, “Good news is if he misses the Masters he can shoot another six commercials that week!”
It was the type of refrain with which Rickie had become quite familiar amidst his struggles on the golf course. There was a time when it was impossible to imagine a Masters without Rickie Fowler. A former top five player in the world, he had five wins on the PGA Tour, including eight top five finishes in major championships. With this on-course success came an immense following of fans. But it wasn’t just his success — there are plenty of five-time tour winners that no one really cares about — it was Rickie’s unique style, his demeanor, his overwhelming friendliness and undeniable charisma that made him such a fan favorite. There aren’t many golfers that become something of a household name to the casual sports fan, but Rickie did. The best evidence is one of my favorite ‘This is SportsCenter’ commercials starring Rickie and Scott Van Pelt.
In 2014, Rickie finished in the top five in all four majors, further cementing his place near the top of the game. With it came more off-course attention— Puma, Rocket Mortgage, Farmer’s Insurance, Red Bull, even Rolex and Mercedes-Benz — Rickie’s star continued to grow. He was one of the up-and-coming stars of the game. The most fun Rickie off-course experience, though, has to be the famous ‘SB2K17’ trip to Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas, where he and fellow tour stars Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Smylie Kaufman entertained golf fans everywhere with their now-iconic Snapchat stories. There are countless collections of these posts online, here’s just one you need to check out.
Soon, Rickie was as big off the course as he was on it. Then, when his game started dipping in 2019 and 2020, your best chance to catch him on TV on the weekend was during the commercial breaks, after he’d missed the cut in the tournament. Of course, without the golf game to back it up, it was open season for naysayers like Nick Faldo to take cheap shots at Rickie’s endorsements. Commentaries like this GolfMonthly article became the norm, and it wasn’t long before barbs like Faldo’s set in as the prevailing narrative: The reason Fowler’s golf game had stumbled was because he was spending all his time shooting commercials, rather than practicing.
Of course, this is a gross oversimplification of a professional golfer’s reality. No outside spectator can truly speak to Rickie’s commitment to his craft, or alleged lack thereof. If anything, it’s reasonable to venture he was working harder when struggling, as many golfers often testify. It’s a game that feels easy at times, and so hard at others… sometimes it feels as if there’s no correlation between effort and success.
Rickie tried changing coaches, swing feels, and various clubs. Things got worse — way worse than he could’ve imagined — before they got any better. After finishing 2018 ranked 4th in the world, he finished 2019 at 14th. Then he finished 2020 at 52nd, then 2021 at 120th. By the summer of 2022, Fowler was the 169th-best golfer in the world. Rock bottom.
On June 1st, 2022, the golf world was shaken by shocking news: Dustin Johnson had agreed to join the LIV tour, backed by the Saudi Arabian government. He would be paid over $100 million to defect from the PGA Tour and serve as a public face for a government with a contentious — if not overtly problematic — human rights record.
Five days later, Phil Mickelson would officially join. Just like that, the professional golf landscape was thrown into a state of chaos and paranoia. Who would be next? If Phil, one of the top ten players of all time, and DJ, one of the best in the world, could leave… who might be next? Rumors began to swirl uncontrollably.
There was a trend that many noticed among the the defectors… there were a lot of players whose best days on the golf course were likely behind them. Phil Mickelson was the chief example, but former major winners and world #1 players like Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, and Lee Westwood joined alongside former stars like Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, and Henrik Stenson. Eventually, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau would be two of LIV’s most recognizable stars. Brooks had dominated major championships from 2017 to 2019 or so, and DeChambeau was the tour’s most fascinating and contentious character in 2020 and 2021.
As the LIV roster filled with off-course stars whose past on-course success had largely diminished, fans and media pundits fixed their eyes on Rickie Fowler. Reports about Rickie’s leanings were wildly conflicted. Before Mickelson’s official departure, prominent commentator Rich Lerner reported that moves from Phil and Rickie were “imminent”. Some outlets ran with this, and reported that both were gone. Look at the certainty of this headline.
To make things even more contentious, Rickie’s spring break buddies dug their heels in in support of the PGA Tour. Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth became two of the tour’s most vocal disciples, rivaled only by Rory McIlroy. It’s difficult to describe how contentious this divide became. LIV was offering players nine figures in appearance fees, no matter how well they played, while the PGA Tour had always been a meritocracy. And of course, that money was coming straight from the Saudi “Public Investment Fund”, unashamedly created for the sole purpose of Saudi sportswashing — using investment into sports as a way to weasel their way into the public sphere of Western culture, hoping to dumb the public perception of the country which has been righfully influenced by their egregous human rights violations. Saudi Arabia alone has spent roughly $2 billion in sportswashing efforts, and gotten a foothold in multiple sports.
With that in mind, many understandably characterized the LIV contracts as ‘blood money’, a refrain that might also be applied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, or other sportswashing funding efforts from dubious sources. With this complex and bigger-than-golf actor playing an undeniable role in the PGA vs. LIV storyline, it’s clear to see why things got so contentious.
Rickie Fowler had a decision to make. It wasn’t an easy one. Why do you think so many struggling former stars chose to take the LIV route? It was a way out.
The pressure is never, ever off on the PGA Tour. If you miss the cut at a tournament, you don’t get paid. With every poor performance, your world ranking is affected. This will determine your status in the four majors — as your ranking dips, it’s very possible you don’t qualify. Your place in the season-long standings is at stake too, and you could be in danger of missing out on the playoffs, where they hand out extreme amounts of prize money. And if worse comes to worst, you could even lose your PGA Tour card altogether. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing.
The LIV Tour operates in the exact opposite way. There are 48 players on the tour, each one essentially invited by Greg Norman, the CEO, and offered a contract. Every event features those same 48 players, and there is no way that any of the 48 can lose their spot. They’re under no pressure from other players trying to kick in the door, like PGA Tour players are. There is no qualification system for events, like there is on tour, and there is no way for an aspiring player to earn his way in by playing good golf.
Not a bad deal for the 48 players on the roster, is it? Guaranteed money and no pressure. Now you can understand the reason some players left… if you’re past your prime or struggling with injuries, LIV provides an easy way to ride off into the sunset and make a pretty penny. Brooks Koepka and Ian Poulter’s episodes of Full Swing on Netflix offer a great window into the minds of players in this situation.
Rickie Fowler was one of LIV’s top targets. His charisma and popularity amongst fans is exactly what LIV is after. In the search for a star that could be the face of a new tour, he’s naturally one of the first names that comes up. The amount of money that was offered to Rickie has not been reported. Phil got $200M, and Dustin Johnson $150M… it’s reasonably to venture Rickie’s offer was close, and safe to assume it was over nine figures.
You know the ending to this story. Fowler turned LIV down and chose the tour. But it wasn’t an easy decision, by any means, “I’ve been in talks with them for a long time. It’s something to definitely look at. At this point, it wasn’t the right move or decision for us, but I’m not saying I’m for sure here or I’m going to go there. I’m going to just kind of leaving my options open and see how things play out.” (Sporting News)
Since, Rickie has strongly solidified his position as a PGA Tour loyalist. He was announced as a commitment for Tiger and Rory’s TGL, a tech-infused simulator-based golf league that will play on Monday nights starting in 2024. Then in August, Rickie was spotted with Tiger heading to Delaware for the now-famous players meeting where Woods reportedly ‘rallied the troops’ in truly cinematic fashion.
So why did Rickie stay? Does the credit go to Tiger, for seemingly taking Rickie under his wing? Or did his spring break buddies, JT and Jordan, convince him to turn the offer down? Of course, there’s no way to know what the deciding factors were, but in the end, Rickie chose competitive golf over an easy way to cash a check. He took a risk, continuing to play on a tour that has seen him fall from a top ten player to outside the top 100 in just two years. He’s missed on out on the playoffs and the Masters, but he’s committed to clawing his way back rather than sneaking out the back door to LIV.
Rickie spent years fighting the idea that he doesn’t care about competing in golf, as long as he makes his money off the course. Comments like Nick Faldo’s insinuated that he didn’t have the drive to win, because of the comfy endorsement checks. Do you see the irony in relation to the LIV offer? It’s poetic really, how things come full circle. Rickie was given a golden opportunity to take the money and run. He could play less golf, and make (much) more money, as Dustin Johnson funnily explained in Full Swing. Rickie had the chance to put all the stress and pressure behind him, and he said no.
When Fowler turned down LIV in 2022, he really was risking a lot. He was ranked 160-somethingth in the world, had just missed the FedEx Cup playoffs again, and was in danger of losing his card. And there was no guarantee that the LIV offer would still be there down the road.
Since then, he somehow found his golf game. He’s hitting it and putting it better than he has in years — gaining 0.44 strokes putting, his highest since 2019, and 0.95 strokes on approach — by far the highest of his career. Rickie has played ten tournaments now in the calendar year, and he’s made every single cut, even finishing in the top 20 in eight of those ten. DataGolf’s ranking system has him up to 20th in the world, and climbing.
With the 2022 Ryder Cup approaching in August, there’s now a real chance Rickie makes a return to the team, something that would’ve seemed like a pipe dream a year ago, even eight months ago. Twelve players make the US team, and Rickie ranks 6th amongst Americans in strokes gained over the last six months.
This week will be Rickie’s first major appearance of the season, the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. After three years of near anonymity on the game’s biggest stage, this week serves as an opportunity to reintroduce himself to the casual fan. Like an old friend who’s been away for awhile, Rickie’s back. A notable performance this week would go a long, long way.
This April, Rickie, JT, Jordan, and Smylie took another trip to Baker’s Bay for spring break. This time around, all four brought their wives, and Rickie and Jordan brought their kids. On Rickie’s Instagram he wrote, “SB2K23… parent edition… there once was 4… now there’s 11 plus 2 dogs… the squad is growing!!”
With three majors (and a lot of other golf) left to play this summer, there is a lot at stake for Rickie. He actually isn’t officially qualified yet for the US Open and the Open Championship, but needs to hold his current position in the FedEx standings. This time around, it looks like he’s in great position to make it into the FedEx Cup playoffs, after missing out in back-to-back seasons. And maybe more notably, he’s currently ranked just inside the top fifty in the Official World Golf Rankings, which would qualify him for the 2024 Masters.
There will always be negative comments like Nick Faldo’s. But this year, they’re starting to be drowned out by praise. Take it from his fellow tour stars…
Gary Woodland: “Rickie moves the needle. Obviously, he hasn’t had his best stuff the last couple years, but Rickie still gets crowds because he just has good energy around him. He’s always a positive guy and he makes time for the fans, man. He does things the right way.”
Rory McIlroy: ““He’s not only one of the most marketable players, but I think we all believe that his potential is up there as being one of the best in the world… There’s a ton of guys that are important to the Tour, but I think Rickie just brings a different dimension, a different element to things that make people tune in.”
Jordan Spieth: “He could win multiple times. I think it’s close to that happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was this week, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a couple of months from now.”
Justin Thomas: “I can just tell from playing practice rounds with him or playing with him at home, he’s just, he’s a different person. He’s got a lot more swagger, a lot more confidence. His expectations are different. I mean, he gives more than anybody, I would say. He’s more relatable. He gives more time, whether it’s signing or having fan experiences. That’s a reason why he’s one of the most loved out here.”
Rickie Fowler: “The following and the fans, that just came naturally, I guess… It’s an honor to be in a position where I get to be a role model because I remember people that I looked up to growing up. So trying to be someone that’s a positive role model, someone parents want their kids to look up to or watch and pull for, that’s a privilege.”
