For a long time, he was better known for his outrageous orange outfits than his golf. And yet, between 2014 - 2019 he spent more than 200 weeks in the top 10 in the world. In fact many see past the brand imagery stuff of Rickie and still call him the best player in the world without a major - but how accurate is this?
When Tiger won the historic 2019 Masters - Fowler was ranked 10th in the world and would finish in the top 10 at both Augusta and The Open Championship that year. But his game began to slide. By the end of 2019, he was outside the top 20 and he would finish 2020 outside the top 50 missing the cut in 6/15 tournaments. 2021 wouldn't be any kinder to Fowler and at one point he'd touch 128 in the OWGR.
Lost in the wilderness - Fowler set about rebuilding his swing. His iconic shallow move was altered with something closer to a neutral swing plane. Progress was slow. He failed to finish in the top 20 at any events in 2022 and many were surprised he didn't ride off into the sunset with a big payday from LIV where his offer was speculated to be north of $100m.
But Fowler stuck to the PGA and stuck to his task.
His investment in the new swing started paying dividends. His 2023 season so far has seen him rapidly rise back up the OWGR with 8 top 10's and only two missed cuts in 18 events.
If we look at the last 20 years worth of majors and assign the following points for places:
2nd - 5
3rd - 3
4th - 2
5th - 1
The ranked list of best players to not win a major looks like this:
Lee Westwood is WAY out in front on this list. His ability to not convert one of these chances puts him in a league of his own - truly a South Africa/cricket World Cup situation - maybe worse.
But Rickie has made 2nd place his own and by some margin.
If you consider his meteoric rise at the start of his career - both in terms of talent and brand equity - his recent comeback story and 54-hole US open lead was incredibly compelling. He made more birdies than other player in US Open history this week and continued to please fans - signing autographs late into the night.
He should be an easy Ryder Cup pick come September and boy it is good to have his star burning bright again.
But sadly Rickie's major run recurs.
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