ORLANDO, Florida – Remember when Rickie Fowler seemed to have the world behind his head, when every golf fan wanted to be him, when grown men went to tournaments dressed like him, adorned with his signature face to face orange popsicle?
Well, the fight is real now for Fowler, whose game has been spiraling over the past year, with no end in sight.
No one knows when this will end – least of all Fowler, who continues to struggle to find his old magic on earth.
Jordan Spieth, one of Fowler’s close friends, is aware of the anguish his friend is going through because he has lived through it since his last victory, the British Open 2017. Spieth has only recently begun to emerge from a crisis that has dragged on for about three years.
“For him, and I think, and for me too, the hardest thing about fighting is when you have been very successful [before] and therefore it’s almost impossible to fight in silence, in the dark, and finish your job in the dark, ” Spieth said on Wednesday before the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which starts Thursday at Bay Hill.
Fowler, known for both his profitability and golf, does not work much on anonymity. He is more visible than many players with twice his résumé – and with that he brings some criticism.
Take Tuesday, for example, when CBS golf analyst Nick Faldo went on Twitter to launch a cheap, unprovoked blow to Fowler.
Fowler, whose world ranking has plummeted to 65th, is in serious danger of losing the Masters for the first time in a decade. He has played 41 consecutive major championships, but unless he wins a PGA Tour event or returns to the top 50 before next month’s tournament at Augusta National, this impressive streak will end without ceremony.
Fowler, a five-time winner of the PGA Tour that has already been ranked No. 4 in the world, missed the cut in 10 of his last 25 games and did not finish in the top 10 in 21 games, dating back to January 2020.
Earlier this week, Fowler estimated that he spends between 25 and 30 days a year recording commercials for his sponsors.
Enter the Faldo salvo.
“The good news is that if he misses the Masters, he can record six more commercials that week, ” Faldo commented on social networks.
Kick one of the nicest players in the sport when he is down. Elegant things from “Sir ” Nick, who delivered more than a few moments mocking himself – luckily for him, that came before Twitter.
“There will be a lot of noise and a lot of emphasis on results versus a real understanding of what your ultimate goal is and how long it can take in golf,” said Spieth. “We saw a non-human in Tiger Woods being able to make massive changes faster than what is likely to be realistic for anyone else.
“I think that fighting publicly when you’re someone like Rickie makes it more difficult, so blocking out the noise is very important and keeping what you’re doing is very important. ”
Fowler admitted that his difficulties on the golf course affect him off the course. There has been some friction between him and his caddy, Joe Skovron, and not taking his bad game home to his wife has been difficult.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Fowler. “Everyone who really plays, especially at some kind of high level, fully understands that golf is up and down. You enjoy the moments when you are playing well and overcome them because you know that it will not always be like that, there are times when you will fall and you will have to fight against it. “
Remember 2014? Fowler finished in the top five in all four majors that year. He has eight results in the top five in major championships, 11 in the top 10 out of the 43 he played.
The irritating narrative that used to be linked to Fowler’s career, like a pair of sharp pebbles housed at the heels of his golf nails, was about his inability to win an important championship through all of these disputes.
“Best player to ever win a major.” This used to be his record company.
Fowler would like to have only these problems at the moment.