Revenge sweet as Rickie has last laugh
TALK about the last laugh. Goodness, the effervescent Rickie Fowler had us all lined up against the wall following his stunning performance to win the Players Championship in amazing circumstances.
Hey you, my fellow pros: still think I’m the most overrated player on the PGA Tour?
Gentlemen of the press: how’s that Rory McIlroy- Jordan Spieth rivalry coming along?
And as for you, mom and lil’ sis: what were you thinking, making your way to the airport while I was still out on the course?
Yes, if Fowler was the type, he could have poked fun at all of us. But the truth is, he is simply not the type at all.
After three-and-a-half flat days, what drama we had over the final three-and-a-half hours. If you went to bed and missed it, you were certainly in good company.
With six holes to play, even Fowler’s mother and sister had seen enough and decided to head back to California. Who could blame them? Fowler trailed Sergio Garcia by six shots at the time. He was still four in arrears playing the final four.
‘Let’s birdie them all,’ said Fowler to himself, before proceeding to play them in five under instead.
One can only imagine the scene at Jacksonville airport. ‘Er, you know those bags we’ve just checked in to LA and those boarding passes you’ve just given us? Can we forget it, because my son has just gone nuts and we need to get back to Sawgrass.’
Fowler’s mother and sister made it in time for the three hole play- off against the luckless Garcia and the unheralded Kevin Kisner. They made it to see Kisner and their man birdie the 17th to play on for one more hole.
They made it to see Fowler birdie the course’s signature hole for the third time on the same day to win.
Think about that feat this way. Last year, golfers put more than 500,000 balls in the water surrounding that celebrated island green at the 17th and here was Fowler, with the PGA Tour’s flagship event on the line, making it look like it should be a par two.
It was, by any yardstick, an afternoon of sporting brilliance and one that changed considerably the perception about the engaging Fowler. The most overrated player? To the pros, one can only say, frankly, you should not participate in any more anonymous polls because you make yourselves look stupid.
Budding rivalries? Well, if Rory’s the Jack Nicklaus of this generation and Jordan like a gritty Gary Player, we will hardly complain if Rickie the crowd favourite steps up to the plate to play the role of Arnie, will we? What times we are living in for the Royal and Ancient game.
On Saturday afternoon, I wandered around Sawgrass with 50,000 spectators and saw a younger crowd than you would ever see at a Premier League football match. Forty per cent must have been women and 20 per cent of those would have been under the age of 25.
Maybe it is not surprising with two charismatic, good-looking players aged 26 and one aged 21 at the top of the game. The face of the sport is changing before our eyes.