By midway through the back nine he knew that ship had sailed.
He began the day dreaming of a maiden major championship, but six holes in he was suddenly four shots back of Clark. He didn’t have control of his irons, losing nearly three strokes to the field on approach. His 75 was the fourth-highest score of the day, pushing him from tied for first to a three-way share of fifth. I’m heading the right direction, and we’re still going forward and up.”įowler admittedly didn’t have his best stuff on Sunday. “I definitely think we’re heading the right direction,” Fowler said. What did it mean, then, that he was in the final pairing just one year later? When he finished last year’s PGA Championship, some people wondered if it would be his final major ever. But that first-alternate wait came in the midst of a stretch in which Fowler missed four out of seven major championships. Fowler had made a name for himself early in his career for his major-championship play his four top-fives in 2014 was an incredible feat and he’d logged five more major top-10s in the years since. This was relentless positivity on display.įrom the outside, his situation didn’t seem so obviously positive. And when he didn’t ultimately get to tee it up, he said there was “a lot of good stuff” to take away from the experience. He even took a break from the day’s wait to talk to a group of USGA interns. 145 had nearly made it through Open Qualifying but had settled at first alternate, which meant he trekked to Brookline, played practice rounds, prepped his game and waited around all Thursday. This was his tournament to win! This was the tournament that would change everything! But Fowler chose to describe the week as progress - and it seemed like he meant it when he said it, too. A final-round five-over-par 75 might seem that way, too. Now? Most members of the media were off hoping for a glimpse of his victorious playing partner.įowler looked out at the near-empty room, flashed a grin and delivered a line, deadpan.įowler’s proximity to victory might seem like it’d be pure pain.
#Belief in short game golf full#
After his second and third rounds Fowler had held the tournament lead, so he’d faced full houses then, too.
Open-record 62, he’d faced a full house of reporters. Runner-up Rory McIlroy had just vacated the podium and many members of the press had snuck off in pursuit of Clark and his winner’s speech.Īfter the first round, in which Fowler fired a U. She’d be very proud,” he said.Īfter signing his card and hugging his wife and scooping up his daughter - who was wowed by the crowd but seemingly unaware of the specifics of, say, her father’s 72nd-hole bogey - Fowler walked around a corner and up the steps to the interview room. And then, just before they walked away, he leaned in for a quieter message. That’s where he found Fowler, who welcomed him with open arms.įowler pulled Clark in tight, yelling his congratulations. After a couple minutes with his friends and family, Clark ran out of people to hug and turned to walk toward the back of the green.
Rickie Fowler watched the celebration from the back of the green, hat in hand and smile on face. They roared their approval for golf’s newest major champion. All week the Los Angeles Country Club crowd had been critiqued for a lack of energy, but now the green was surrounded by a group of marauders that had snuck under the ropes and charged up the fairway. Clark buried his face in his hat for a moment, hiding his tears from the world, but when he uncovered his eyes the world had come to him.
A cameraman arrived by his side, and then another, and then another. He began bawling before the ball settled in the bottom of the cup. Some 30 feet away, Wyndham Clark raised his arms in triumph. Open concluded and the crowd exploded, one man stood still. LOS ANGELES - As the final putt dropped and the U.S. Rickie Fowler entered Sunday tied with Wyndham Clark but finished the day five shots back.
0 kommentar(er)
