Clutch putts seal win for Fowler
Just when it seemed Rickie Fowler was going to lose another finalround lead Sunday in the Honda Classic, he made a long birdie putt. Then another. And another. Covering a combined 91 feet of Bermuda greens on those three putts, Fowler turned a tense oneshot lead into a four-shot win on a more difficult Champion Course at PGA National Resort & Spa.
Fowler’s up-and-down, 1-overpar 71 enabled one of the game’s most popular players to claim his first PGA Tour victory in 17 months and his first since Abu Dhabi a year ago in January.
Morgan Hoffmann (68) and Gary Woodland (69) tied for second place.
“My putter saved me,” said Fowler, who lives 10 miles from PGA National in Jupiter. “Those putts on eight, 12 and 13 … if I don’t make those, I’ve got a pretty tight race.”
It marked the first time in five tries that Fowler converted a 54hole lead on the PGA Tour. Fowler still hasn’t broken par in those situations, but that mattered little as he earned his fourth win in 179 starts on tour.
“It’s nice to get the goose egg off that statistic,” Fowler said. “I saw Gary was making a late run, and I just had to hold on. I would have liked to have had a cleaner card today and played a little bit better. But I got the job done.”
Fowler started the tournament ranked 14th in the world, but the victory moved him back into the top 10 in the world rankings, likely ninth.
Fowler started the day with a four-shot lead and saw it go to five when England’s Tyrrell Hatton bogeyed the first hole. But Fowler bogeyed the fourth and doublebogeyed the sixth, cutting his advantage to two shots.
Fowler rolled in a 30-foot birdie at No. 8 but gave that shot back with a bogey at the ninth. After Woodland pulled within one with a couple of birdies early on the back nine, Fowler made a 38-footer at No. 12 and a 23-footer at No. 13 to extend his lead to three shots.
Fowler, 28, added a birdie at the 16th before one-putting for bogey at the 17th when his tee shot rolled into the water. With his challengers also struggling down the stretch, Fowler played the par-5 closing hole conservatively and closed with a bogey to finish at 12-under-par 268.
Fowler’s iron play cooled off on the weekend. But his putter got red-hot as he rolled in 134 feet of putts in the final round after averaging 80.3 feet in the first three rounds.
“He made every putt that mattered this week, and that was the difference,” said Fowler’s caddie, Joe Skovron.
Woodland bogeyed the last two holes to drop into a second-place tie with Hoffman, who had his career best finish on the PGA Tour.
“Just didn’t get the putts to come in down the stretch,” Woodland said.
Jhonattan Vegas shot the day’s best round, a 64, with a hole-inone on the par-3 15th hole and finished tied for fourth with Billy Horschel (68), Chad Collins (69), Wesley Bryan (70), Martin Kaymer (70) and Hatton (72).
At least Fowler added another trophy to his “small collection,” as he joked with reporters after the fourth round.
“This is something we needed going into Augusta,” Fowler said. “There’s less pressure, less stress. I like the spot where we’re at right now.”