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LOS ANGELES – When the final blow fell and the US Open ended and the crowd erupted, one man stood still.
About 30 feet away, Windham Clark raised his arms in triumph. He started screaming before the ball settled to the bottom of the cup. A photographer arrived at his side, then another, and then another. Clark buried his face in his hat for a moment, hiding his tears from the world, but when he revealed his eyes the world came to him. The Los Angeles Country Club crowd had been criticized all week for the lack of power, but now the green was surrounded by a group of thieves who had slipped under the ropes and swarmed the fairway. They yelled their approval of golf’s newest grand champion.
Rickie Fowler watched the celebration from behind, green hat in hand and smile on his face. After two minutes with his friends and family, Clark ran out of people to hug him and turned to walk toward the back of the green. This is where he found Fowler, who welcomed him with open arms.
Pulling Clark tight, Fowler shouted his congratulations. And then, just before they got away, he leaned in for a quieter message.
“Your mother was with you. She would be very proud,” he said.
After signing his card, embracing his wife, and bringing his daughter—dazzled by the crowd but apparently unaware of the details of, say, her father’s 72-hole ghost—Fowler walked around the corner and walked into the interview room. Runner-up Rory McIlroy had just cleared the platform and several members of the press had snuck in to follow Clarke and the winner’s speech.
After the first round, in which Fowler shot the record US Open 62, he faced a whole host of reporters. After the second and third rounds, Fowler held the lead, so he faced full houses in that time as well. now? Most members of the media were hoping to get a glimpse of his victorious play partner.
Fowler glanced at the nearly empty room, flashed a smile and nodded to the dead-end queue.
“where is everybody?”
Fowler’s closeness to victory may seem like pure pain. The final round of five on 75 might look that way, too. This was his tournament to win! This was the tournament that would change everything! But Fowler chose to describe the week as progress — and it seemed as though he meant it when he said it, too.
It’s easy to see why. A year ago, Fowler was also at the US Open, but he couldn’t play. The world No. 145 had nearly qualified for the Open Qualifier but settled into a rotating start, which meant he flew to Brooklyn, played practice rounds, prepped for his match and waited all day Thursday. He even took break From waiting for the day to speak to a group of USGA interns. And when he finally got nowhere to play, he said there was “a lot of good” to take away from the experience. This was a relentless positive on screen.
From the outside, his situation wasn’t overtly positive. Fowler had made a name for himself early in his career playing major championship games; His career-best five in 2014 was an incredible feat, and he’s scored five other top-10s in the years since. But this first alternate wait came amid a period in which Fowler missed four of his seven major championships. When he finished last year’s PGA Championship, some people wondered if it would be his major finals never.
What does it mean, then, that he was in the last two after only a year?
“I definitely think we’re heading in the right direction,” Fowler said. “The past 10 or 12 months have been great. I’m heading in the right direction, and we just keep going and higher.”
This is understatement.
Admittedly, Fowler didn’t have his best Sunday. His 75 was the fourth-highest score of the day, which moved him from a tie for first place to a triple share of fifth. He had no control of his irons, and lost nearly three strokes in the pitch on the close. Day began dreaming of his first major championship, but six holes in he was suddenly four shots behind Clark. By midway through the aft nine, he learned that the ship had sailed.
However, the T5 in Specialty is worth more than nothing. There’s a check for $738,934, of course. But more importantly, Fowler’s display cabinets rank 35th in the world. It earns him valuable Ryder Cup points. It is reinforced by the fact that it is, again, a fixture in golf’s upper crust. For McIlroy, Sunday was make or break. Fowler? There was a lot to be gained by getting this close.
“I enjoyed it,” said Fowler, summarizing his starring role. “You learn from all your experiences. Not the position I wanted to be in anymore, but a lot of good things are coming from this week.”
I walked with Fowler’s group most of the day. I was concerned because I never saw a hint of frustration or anger. Not after a smashed chip putt at No. 2. Not after a triple putt at No. 5. Not after a blocked tee shot at No. 7. Fowler cited walking the 16th hole as the moment he realized his chances of the win officially evaporating. I happened to be next to him on that walk and he was vague, emotionless and unmoving except for swinging his huge water bottle.
This is consistent with the version of this guy we’ve seen over the past couple of years. Even when Fowler spoke about his struggles, he never claimed that they shook his heart or compromised his psyche. We knew, intuitively, that it couldn’t be that simple. There must be moments. Like, for example, when he watched the 2021 Masters alongside an injured Tiger Woods in Jupiter, or when he watched the 2021 Ryder Cup from home, or when he slipped off a top 100 player in the world. You don’t go from an over-the-top game to a well-run game with an uncertain future without accumulating a bit of scar tissue. But despite (or perhaps because of) the amount of time he spent in the public eye, Fowler remained hidden in an air of not knowing.
This is where orange has always been misleading. If there is one word a casual golf fan would use to describe Fowler, it’s orange. On Sunday his head was decorated with a stand of so bright color that it was hard to look directly at it. Maybe that’s the whole point. It’s easy to see how bright this orange is and to realize that you don’t know much about the man underneath.
We come back to that gesture on 18, then. Ricky waiting to greet his winning friends on the last hole has become his trademark. by Justin Thomas. to Tiger Woods. For Brooks Koepka. And so on and so on. There has always been an element of tragedy in Fowler celebrating the major accomplishments of others without having to celebrate any of his own. He felt a little sad about this exact thing. But showing up in front of your friends is basically decent, no matter where you stand. It was easier than ever to hug the winner on Sunday, given that Fowler was in the same group. But he did his best to make the moment with Clark—who had always looked up to Fowler—particularly meaningful.
Fowler built his brand on the Flash Plus material. But Sunday served as a reminder that you are what you do. His game was not enough to win the US Open title. But when he finished his media commitments, he headed to the same place he went after Round One, Round Two, and Round Three too: the autograph area. Sign and sign and sign until each child is satisfied with his work. There’s no faking it through long autograph sessions – you either do it or you don’t.
Rickie Fowler never left the LACC completely satisfied. But he did his best to make sure others did. His golf game seems to have almost gone backwards. That other most important property is never left out.
The author (cautiously) welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.