This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
Midway through the third round of The Players Championship, I got an email from a guy in the RotoWire Golf League: "could the leaderboard have any less starpower?" it read.
No, for all the 15-guys-within-three-shots-of-the-lead scenarios that seem exciting, golf almost always needs big names to move the needle.
At TPC Sawgrass, home of the so-called fifth major, those big names were supposed to be Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth dueling out of the same group as the PGA Tour marketing machine tried to ratchet up the rivalry. But Spieth was gone via a Friday trunk-slam, and McIlroy meandered until pulling off another one of his famous backdoor top-10s.
Luckily, the most overrated golfer on tour was still around to provide the most thrilling finish in the 34-year history of the prestigious tournament.
Rickie Fowler, who began his week with embarrassing word that his fellow pros deemed him the most overrated golfer, finished his week by playing his final 10 holes, four in a playoff, in 8-under par. He defeated Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner in the playoff, a pretty darn good poll response.
In the annual Sports Illustrated survey of anonymous tour golfers, Fowler and Ian Poulter tied for most overrated at 24 percent. Fowler arrived five years ago with as much fanfare as McIlory and Spieth, but their accomplishments have lapped him many times over. So while Fowler was ranked No. 13 in the world, he had only one career win, the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship. Yes, he
Midway through the third round of The Players Championship, I got an email from a guy in the RotoWire Golf League: "could the leaderboard have any less starpower?" it read.
No, for all the 15-guys-within-three-shots-of-the-lead scenarios that seem exciting, golf almost always needs big names to move the needle.
At TPC Sawgrass, home of the so-called fifth major, those big names were supposed to be Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth dueling out of the same group as the PGA Tour marketing machine tried to ratchet up the rivalry. But Spieth was gone via a Friday trunk-slam, and McIlroy meandered until pulling off another one of his famous backdoor top-10s.
Luckily, the most overrated golfer on tour was still around to provide the most thrilling finish in the 34-year history of the prestigious tournament.
Rickie Fowler, who began his week with embarrassing word that his fellow pros deemed him the most overrated golfer, finished his week by playing his final 10 holes, four in a playoff, in 8-under par. He defeated Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner in the playoff, a pretty darn good poll response.
In the annual Sports Illustrated survey of anonymous tour golfers, Fowler and Ian Poulter tied for most overrated at 24 percent. Fowler arrived five years ago with as much fanfare as McIlory and Spieth, but their accomplishments have lapped him many times over. So while Fowler was ranked No. 13 in the world, he had only one career win, the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship. Yes, he was the only golfer to finish in the top 5 in all four majors last year, but blah-blah-blah win a dang tournament.
Maybe the poll was just the kick in the orange pants, one that surely hurt coming from his peers, that Fowler needed.
Fowler was nearing the end of a mildly successful week, five behind leader Garcia, when he caught fire. Within that 10-hole stretch was an astounding four-hole blitz in which he shot a 5-under 11. Eleven! Par-4 15th: birdie. Par-5 16th: eagle. Par-3 17th: birdie. Par-4 18th: birdie. The 3-3-2-3 finish left Fowler at 12-under 276, in the clubhouse with a two-shot cushion, but with many golfers still on the course.
Garcia and Kisner had their own strong finishes to tie, and off to extra holes we went. The tournament had instituted a new format: a three-hole aggregate playoff. After playing Nos. 16-18, Garcia was out. Fowler and Kisner went back to 17, and the pro-Rickie gallery got what it wanted, with their hero birdieing Sawgrass' signature island-green hole for the third time in two hours to lock up the biggest win of his career. (Yeah, it's only his second win, but it's still the biggest.)
Fowler thus will move to a career-best No. 8 in the latest OWGR, but perhaps more importantly shed the tag that reportedly had so angered him.
MONDAY TAKEAWAY
Sergio Garcia
Sergio sure looked like Sergio after he blew a two-shot lead on the back nine on Sunday. But he battled back with birdies on the par-5 16th and par-3 17th, the latter an incredible 44-footer on the island green. In the playoff, Garcia did not play badly, with no bogeys but also no birdies. So all in all, a great tournament for Garcia, who showed fight and decent putting. That bodes well for his owners this summer.
Kevin Kisner
Kisner has been toiling on tour for four years, never much making a dent, certainly like so many others from the University of Georgia golf factory. But he suddenly has his three best career finishes this season, including playoff losses in two of his past three starts (he also lost to Jim Furyk at the RBC Heritage). So if he's out there in your league, grab him. Somebody in the RotoWire league did just that before The Players, amounting to one of the shrewdest pickups in league history. (It wasn't me who picked him up. If it were me, I would've named me.)
Ben Martin
Martin agonizingly just missed making the playoff a foursome, bogeying the final hole by an eyelash after getting to 12-under with birdies on Nos. 15-17. He's clearly a comer, having already won once this season, the Shriners back in the October. There's not much advice needed here: Play him any time you can.
Bill Haas
Haas already has a win this season, at the Humana, and is 18th in the point standings, so he's doing all right. But he also frittered away some prime opportunities. He was in the mix heading into Sunday at the WGC-Cadillac Championship but shot 2-over to fade to T7. And on Sunday, he missed the playoff by a stroke -- after botching not one but two three-footers on the front nine. You have no choice but to start Haas whenever you can, but it must be maddening for his owners.
Billy Horschel
We beat up Billy Boy pretty good around here. But when he plays well ... Horschel finished tied for 13th on Sunday, and that follows a difficult loss in the third round of the Match Play to eventual champion McIlroy. So he has consecutive top-20s for the first time all season and, with his T3 showing in San Antonio in late March, has again displayed at least the ability to win. If you hadn't already pawned him off in your league, might be wise to hang tight.
Ian Poulter
Well, this is embarrassing. If Poulter and Fowler were tied for the most overrated golfer on tour, and Fowler won, that leaves ... Poulter. The Englishman tied for 30th at Sawgrass, plunging 13 spots on Sunday following a 74. As for overrated, Poulter has not been good outside of match play for some time, and even stunk up the joint at the WGC-Match Play last week. Not sure who is rating Poulter so high, or could it be his fellow prods just don't like his on-course abrasiveness?
Ricky Barnes
Early in the second round on Friday, Barnes found himself on the first page of the leaderboard. No one is saying he was going to win the tournament, but at that stage of things, making the cut is a slam dunk. Clang! Off the back rim! Barnes proceeded to play his final 13 holes of the tournament -- yes, the tournament -- at 8-over, plunging all the way to MC. Barnes has played nearly 200 times on tour, and never won. He has three career top threes. Barnes has never been very good, but now he's not even a fantasy option.
Anirban Lahiri
The Indian arrived stateside in March to take part in the big spring events amid a bit of fanfare, having risen to No. 34 in the world after winning two Asian-centric European Tour events. Lahiri has played six PGA tour events since then, missing two cuts, including The Players, and finishing no higher than 44th in a stroke play event. Clearly, he's not ready for prime time.
Matt Kuchar
There's a small group in the golf world who believe that Tiger Woods' greatest achievement is not the 14 majors, but going seven years without missing a cut, 142 straight cashes from 1998 to 2005. Kuchar missed the cut for the first time in 24 events at The Players, and that 23 was the longest current streak on tour. He already was having a bit of an off year, and this only validates that point.
