And just like that, after only two seasons on tour, Bryson DeChambeau has passed Rickie Fowler in the tour victories department.
And why do we bring up Rickie Fowler?
Well Rickie is south of the border this week at the Mayakoba Classic. We all know that Rickie basically went winless last season and this fall cross-over event was one where he had a really good chance to win.
Rickie lost by a shot at the El Cameleon Golf Club thanks to a wayward drive down the stretch. Patton Kizzire nipped him and a player of Rickie’s stature isn’t supposed to lose tournaments to a guy like Kizzire.
Why?
Well consider that after Kizzire won at Mayakoba last year, he went to Hawaii and won the Sony. Two wins. But after that he vanished from the PGA Tour landscape. Didn’t have another top 10 all season, missed the cut in the three majors he played in — he didn’t qualify for the U.S. Open — and he had a whopping 10 missed cuts. This guy ended up 21st at the FedEx Cup basically thanks to two good weeks on tour. He won $3.541 million, most of it in two events, which basically shows that you can have a damn good season on the PGA Tour by playing good golf for just two weeks. Simply amazing.
Okay, back to Rickie.
This will be Rickie’s 10th season on the PGA Tour — you ask if it has really been that long and yes, it has. And Rickie has those four whopping wins. He won the Wells Fargo in 2012 then got half his wins in 2015 (The Players and Deutsche Bank). Huge year, looked like Rickie was ready to break out then he was blanked in 2016, won the Honda in 2017 and had a no-hitter thrown at him this past season.
Rickie’s near miss at Mayakoba was overshadowed by his near miss at Augusta and The Masters. Patrick Reed nipped him by a shot thanks to a miracle par at 17. You know those Patrons were ready and ripe for Rickie then were force-fed Reed, who has emerged as one of the least-liked players on tour today.
So we have Rickie in the field this week and it’s not exactly a field that will score high in the power rankings.
Rickie’s the highest-ranked player in the field, the only top 10 player in the field. He checks in at No. 9, he’s slipping, for sure. Other names you will notice immediately are Jordan Spieth and Tony Finau. Jordy’s fallen out of the top 10, all the way back to No. 14, looking up at No. 13 Tiger Woods. Finau is 15th and good news for Rickie is that Tony has just one win in his bag and it was one of those lowly opposite-field events.
Gary Woodland’s there and no doubt there’s a buzz in Mexico because the Bombastic Cameron Champ is in town, clear the runway, notify the tower at the airport, one of his drives might show up on their radar.
More good news for Rickie is that he comes in with some momentum. A Sunday 63 jumped him into a tie for fourth last week in Las Vegas.
So yeah, the only guy who wears orange pants on Sunday is up. This is an event he should win.
But then again, there are a lot of events Rickie should have won but simply has not.
Doesn’t matter.
Everyone loves Rickie Fowler.
He can always count on that.
