Page 76 - Golf World (February 2020)

the good

guys

a very finehuman being

Rickie Fowler will win a Major, I am convinced of me tell you a story about Rickie Fowler. I was
that. If you start talking about the best players commentating in 2010 when he laid up on the 15th
over the last 20 years, all of them but one won a hole at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix.
Major, and that was Lee Westwood. It is freakish He had 203 yards to carry the water, 218 yards to
that he didn’t. He ran into Tiger Woods too often. the hole. And he was one shot back. I criticised
But all of the others are off the list. Because they him for laying-up when he could have hit a 5-iron
were good enough to win a Major. Rickie Fowler right next to the hole.
has eight top-fives in Majors. Eight! So he will win The next time I saw him was three weeks later.
a Major. He is right on track. If you win three per He tapped me on the back and could not have
cent of your events, you will get in the hall of fame. been any nicer. That takes a man who is very
And he is right on that number. He is on the same comfortable in his own skin not to take offence.
track as Lanny Wadkins, Johnny Miller and Ben I get that people do take offence. No one likes to
Crenshaw. Tom Kite. be criticised. But when he did that, I knew that
But more than being a very fine golfer, Rickie here was a guy who gets it. He was doing his job
Fowler is also a genuinely fine human being. Let and I was doing mine. He’s just a lovely person.

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