Rickie Fowler Wins Honda Classic in Dramatic Fashion

The year of the young golfer taking over the PGA TOUR continued Sunday with another young phenom, Rickie Fowler, winning the Honda Classic.  While an early Sunday stumble made it made the victory a little less pretty for Fowler, in the end he was still able to get the win.

Coming into the final round, Fowler held a four-shot lead over the competition but that quickly evaporated.  In a round that included early mishaps such as putting into a sprinkler head and hitting an errant tee shot into a water hazard, Fowler was later able to collect himself and birdie back to back holes on his way to a four-shot victory.  And if it wasn’t for a bogey-bogey finish, Fowler could have set the record for the lowest 72-hole score in the history of PGA National.

This was a big win for Fowler because it ended a drought of victories for him that has lasted 13 months and 25 tournament appearances.  Despite not winning a PGA TOUR event since the Deutsche Bank Championship in September of 2015, this victory registers as Fowler’s fourth PGA TOUR win.

While he was excited to hold a trophy for the first time in a year and a half, Fowler did not hesitate to be critical of his final round. “I didn’t play great,” Fowler said. “It wasn’t a pretty round.  But we got the job done.  A win is a win.”

Any win would have been big for Fowler, but taking the victory at the Honda Classic is especially impressive because he was able to defeat many of the young players that have been consistently winning on the Tour this year.  Some of the players that Fowler was able to outlast this weekend included OWGR No. 1 Dustin Johnson, along with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, all of which have notched at least one victory this year.

With this victory, Fowler showed that he still has the talent to beat the best on the Tour and we will see if he is able to carry the momentum from this win into upcoming tournaments, especially The Masters in just over a month.

Cover Photo via Instagram