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PGA: Is Rickie Fowler Finally a Star?

By Joseph Zapata

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Rickie Fowler may be known more for his wardrobe than his play, but he is quietly becoming one of the best players in golf.

Fowler first broke out onto the scene back in 2009 as the hot-shot 20-year-old with a flashy wardrobe, but he struggled to make a real impact. It wasn’t until this summer, Fowler started to emerge as a star.

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Over the course of the 2015 PGA season, Fowler has racked up seven top-10 finishes, and two victories. His first win of the season came at the Players Championship, where he sunk a birdie on the first extra hole, after a three-hole playoff, to win.

His second and biggest win of the year came in the FedEx playoffs at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Fowler finished the weekend -15, and proved to the world he is one of golf’s best players.

PGA fans have been spoiled this year with young up-and-comers such as Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day. If Fowler continues to improve, he can easily join golf’s new wave of talented players headlining majors.

Fowler has overachieved this year, and he’s currently the ranked as the fifth best golfer in the world, per PGATour.com. Fowler has been extremely impressive this summer, but he’s still missing that one thing all golfers need in order to be true stars: a win at a major. Golfers who don’t win majors don’t win headlines.

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    • Fowler has a real chance to join the current youth movement and be a focal point of the PGA’s bright future. Can you imagine Fowler, McIlroy, Spieth and Day, all 20-somethings, competing at majors for the next decade? Golf fans have been stuck living in the past, and wishing for Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods to recreate some old magic and look like the stars of old, but this new crop of young golfers are finally allowing fans to look forward.

    But like I said before, Fowler needs a major victory to become a star; a very similar situation to what Day faced only a few months ago. Day was impressive all season long, but it wasn’t until he won the PGA Championship did he become a headline grabber.

    Unfortunately, Fowler was been pretty mediocre in major events this past summer. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open, and his only top-25 finish came at the Masters back in April.

    Just last year, Fowler finished in the top-five in all four major events; including two second place finishes. He’s been close in the past, but that’s not enough to join the top-echelon of young golfers. Fowler is only 26 years old, so he still has plenty of time to pull off that major, but without it, he’ll always be just shy of a star.

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