The job was done.
Finally.
Rickie Fowler, once one of the brightest stars in golf, had disappeared from the mainstream of the game, falling from No. 4 in the world rankings to 185th and vanishing from the biggest events because he wasn’t playing well enough to qualify for them.
All at once, Fowler was a winner again, for the first time in 1,610 days and 96 tournaments without a victory, when he hoisted the chalice at the Rocket Mortgage Classic three weeks ago.
The paint hadn’t dried on Fowler’s first win since February 2019 when Rory McIlroy texted Fowler’s swing coach, the legendary Butch Harmon.
Fowler had reunited with Harmon in November in a desperate call for help when he admitted he was “lost.’’
“Congratulations Butch,’’ the McIlroy text to Harmon began. “You got Rickie back to where he belongs.’’
Can a professional athlete have a revival at age 34?
Well, Fowler is in the midst of a hell of a comeback at the moment. The Rickie Revival Tour is, indeed, in full force. He’s back on the radar and a seeming no-brainer for the U.S. Ryder Cup team once again.
The next stop for Fowler is the 151st British Open, which begins this week at Royal Liverpool. Fowler finished runner-up to McIlroy the last time the Open was played at Hoylake, and from the depths of nowhere, he has to be considered one of the favorites to win.
Fowler not only will enter the fourth and final major championship of 2023 as one of the most consistent players in the game over the past eight months, but also as one of the most recent winners after he broke through with that victory three weeks ago.
The wait had been long for a player who, based on his early career success, was projected to have quite a few more pelts on his belt by now than he does.
Fowler’s victory at the Rocket Mortgage ended an agonizing period of self-doubt and searching. It not only ended a career-long drought, it did wonders for Fowler’s confidence — particularly the way it unfolded.
It, too, reinforced the hard work Fowler has been putting in with Harmon, who has helped rebuild not only his swing but also, more significantly, his psyche. During the U.S. Open last month at Los Angeles Country Club, Fowler said Harmon is much more than a swing coach, he is a “life coach.’’
Harmon, who at age 79 doesn’t travel to PGA Tour events anymore, watched from his home while Fowler won the Rocket Mortgage in a playoff.
Two weeks earlier, Fowler closed the U.S. Open with a disappointing and deflating final-round 75 to finish fifth after he had a piece of the lead for the first three rounds.
Harmon knew the stress that was coursing through Fowler’s veins during the final round of the Rocket Mortgage in Detroit. He had control of the tournament, slipped up mid-round to lose the lead and was forced to make a remarkable birdie on the 72nd hole to get into the playoff, which he won with a birdie on the first extra hole.
“My anxiety was as high up there as his was because I wanted it so badly for him,’’ Harmon told The Post over the phone from his vacation home in California. “He’s been so close in the last eight months.’’
Fowler needed to be better than close. He needed to win again. And the way he did it, Harmon believes, further steeled his confidence going forward.
“I like winning the way he won rather than it being a cakewalk,’’ Harmon said. “You learn more about yourself through adversity. I think this gives him more confidence going forward than if he’d have run off and left everybody. He had to reach inside after he had it and he let it get away from him. He had to go back and grab it and win the thing. This is where you learn who you are and how far back you’ve come.
“And,’’ Harmon added with a force of conviction in his voice, “he’s back.’’
The win was a particularly popular one around the game, because not only is Fowler one of fans’ favorite players, but also he’s as popular in the clubhouse locker rooms among his peers.
When Fowler won in the playoff to beat Collin Morikawa, who’s in a victory slump of his own, and Adam Hadwin, who has only one career win in 240 starts, both players saluted him. Hadwin actually applauded Fowler on 18 when he won.
“He’s been playing phenomenal golf, it’s great to see,” Morikawa said. “People love him.’’
“I think the game is in a better place when Rickie Fowler’s playing well,’’ Harmon said.
Harmon was moved by the Fowler victory, saying: “Personally, this win means more to me than all the majors I’ve won with guys, just because of where he came from and how low he was and where his self-esteem had gone. Sometimes, you’ve got to hit rock bottom before you come back, and it’s been amazing journey and this is just the start of the journey.’’
Those are strong words coming from a man who has coached the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to major championships.
Fowler is a different man than he was when he burst onto the scene. He was the golf version of Anna Kournikova, who was the most recognizable player in women’s tennis for her looks and marketability, but not her wins on tour.
The marketable Fowler was on more TV commercials than anyone in golf, but he wasn’t winning a lot despite often playing well.
“You’ve got to decide, are you going to be a Kardashian or are you going to be a golf pro?’’ Harmon said to Fowler in a brutally candid conversation he had with him several years ago when they first started working together.
Fowler’s reaction?
“He did not like that,’’ Harmon recalled. “He wasn’t happy at all. He felt that I might have been out of line saying it. He didn’t say that to me, but he said it to his manager. They knew that I was saying that for a reason, because I care about the kid. I saw more in him than we were getting. One of the reasons I’ve had success with Tour players is I’m not an ass-kisser. These players have a lot of ass-kissers around them. That’s not me. My job is to make you better. And I’m brutally honest.’’
Harmon’s tough love had a profound effect on Fowler.
“He’s a totally different person now,’’ Harmon said. “You’re seeing a mature Rickie Fowler now. He’s grown up a lot. He’s not a young guy anymore. He’s a man. He’s a dad. Being a dad with a daughter has really helped him. He’s just a different person.’’
What makes Harmon such a good fit for the players he coaches is how he works with them. He doesn’t force-feed his idea of the golf swing on the player. He works with what the player has.
“He’s the best golf coach out there,” Fowler said. “He does a great job with players, taking what they have and ultimately making them the best that they can be with who they are and how they swing and making what they do well that much better and bring up the weaknesses.”
Fowler said of the win in Detroit: “it was just nice to have this one out of the way. … It’s been a long road. It’s definitely been long and tough. A lot longer being in that situation than you’d ever want to. But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now.”
Back to the place where, as McIlroy texted to Harmon, Fowler belongs.
