DETROIT — Rickie Fowler, a polished pitchman who happens to play golf for a living, always said the right things.
Through all the struggles, and all the swing changes, and the coach change, and the caddie change, Fowler always managed to display an aura of confidence — confidence that he wasn't done, confidence that he'd be back. The truth is, we know now, he didn't really know if that was true.
"You never really know with this game," Fowler said. "You definitely learn to appreciate the good times when you're playing well. You hope the struggles don't last, but sometimes they last longer than you would hope for.
"I knew what I was capable of, but it's tough when you're struggling for that long for a period of time. But I knew it wasn't far off.
"Just kind of had to keep putting the time in, keep grinding, keep pushing."
That grind — that long, four-year grind — came to an exhilarating conclusion early Sunday afternoon at Detroit Golf Club, where Fowler made birdie on the par-4 18th to get into a playoff, then birdied the hole again in the playoff to capture the Rocket Mortgage Classic championship.
Fowler made a putt just inside 12 feet to win it, looking to the sky as the putt dropped to soak in the moment, then embracing with caddie Ricky Romano as a throng of more than 10,000 fans roared for perhaps their favorite non-native son. Fowler has been the face of this tournament since it first came to Detroit in 2019, as a longtime Rocket Mortgage endorser.
If he was going to end his four-year title drought — he last won 1,660 days ago, at the Phoenix Open in 2019 — and it wasn't going to be in a major championship, he'd almost certainly have chosen Detroit to be where he could finally feel the weight of the world brush off his shoulders.
"It felt great," said Fowler, "to get this one."
Fowler shot a final-round, 4-under 68 to finish at 24 under, getting into a playoff with the other bona fide superstar left standing, Collin Morikawa, who shot an 8-under 64, and Canadian Adam Hadwin, who shot a 5-under 67.
None of the three players in the playoff made a bogey all day, on a soggy course where the tee times were moved up to the early morning to beat the storm that rolled through just moments after Fowler hit the clinching putt.
Fowler, 34, started the day with a one-stroke lead, and had a big crowd following him from the jump — and it only swelled. He led for most of the day, but then on the back nine, it looked like things were slipping away from him. He three-putted the par-5 14th hole — his first three-putt of the week — for a par, on a hole Morikawa had just birdied. He then couldn't get up-down at the easy par-5 17th, another par on a hole where Morikawa and Hadwin both made birdie.
That meant Fowler had to birdie No. 18 if he wanted a playoff with Morikawa, who was already in the clubhouse, and likely Hadwin, who was playing with Fowler.
"Our back was against the wall," Fowler said.
On his final hole of regulation, Fowler pulled his tee shot into the first cut of primary rough on the left. This actually proved to be an advantage, because with a back pin, hitting from the fairway would mean a lot of spin. From 145 yards, Fowler hit a wedge that struck the ridge diving the upper and lower tiers of the green, and it hopped up to inside 4 feet.
He made that putt and Hadwin made par, getting up and down from the rough just right of the green, sending the group back to the 18th tee for a sudden-death playoff — the second in tournament history, and the first since Cam Davis won in 2021, outlasting Troy Merritt in a five-hole playoff (Joaquin Niemann also was in that playoff, but lost on the first hole).
Morikawa, on his last hole of regulation, lipped out for a birdie from 12 feet that, as it turned out, would've won him the trophy, dropping to a crouch, in disbelief.
"Yeah, playoffs suck when you're on the wrong side of them," said Morikawa, a five-time PGA Tour winner and two-time major champion who now has lost in three playoffs. He was making his first appearance in Detroit. "You put everything you want into it and comes down to one hole, but that's what golf is. You've got to perform, you've got to execute the shots.
"And we did a lot of that really good this week."
Fowler, now 3-2 in PGA Tour playoffs, did that just a little bit more. One shot more.
Again on 18, this time in the playoff, Fowler was wayward off the tee — way right, toward the hospitality tent. Even amid the tension of the moment, Fowler was able to joke to Romano that at least he gave himself a good angle. But this time, Fowler had 190 yards, from a wet lie (he got relief from his first lie, in standing water).
Fowler took a seven-iron, slashed it out and it stopped just 12 feet short of the hole. The best part about it: He was just inside Hadwin's approach, so he'd get a read, while Morikawa took dead aim at the flagstick but saw his approach hop just over the green, into the rough.
Hadwin, 35, barely missed his putt on the left side, while Morikawa, 26, left his chip short. That cleared the stage for Fowler, and the result was actually predictable.
"I had a sneaking suspicion Rickie was going to make it, right after seeing my ball kind of roll right past that," said Hadwin, making his first appearance in a PGA Tour playoff, while looking for his second PGA Tour win (first since 2017).
"But give him all the credit. He birdied 18 to get into the playoff and then he birdied the first playoff hole.
"Yeah, he's been knocking on the door for a while."
Fowler made so many putts this week — including the two-longest of his season, a 49-footer earlier in the week and a 47-footer for birdie at the par-5 fifth on Sunday, triggering the first roar of the day — but it was that club that was wobbly down the stretch, especially at 14, when he missed a 5-footer for birdie, and at 15, when he again was inside Hadwin and watched Hadwin drain the putt, but couldn't follow suit.
But he did when it mattered most, much to the delight of the tournament title sponsor, whose executives made no bones about their allegiance during the playoff, Bill Emerson and Casey Hurbis wearing orange Puma hats ala Fowler — who had a 54-hole lead three previous times since his last win, finishing tied for third (2021 CJ Cup), tied for second (2020 ZOZO Championship) and tied for fifth (2023 U.S. Open, this month). Rocket Mortgage's downtown headquarters were set to be lit up in orange Sunday night, in honor of Fowler.
As Fowler walked off the green Sunday, he carried his 2-year-old daughter, Maya, who wasn't born the last time Fowler was a PGA Tour champion. Reflecting in the immediate aftermath in the clubhouse Sunday afternoon, Fowler, who ranked outside of the top 180 in the world as recently as just last fall, said he's not sure Maya will have any vivid memories of this victory years from now, but you can bet he will.
"At least we'll have some special images to help her remember today," said Fowler, who now gets a couple of days off before heading overseas with Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and their wives, to play in the Scottish Open and British Open. "It's just nice to have this one out of the way.
I'm obviously going to soak this one in and celebrate. It's just been a long road."
