DETROIT — Rickie Fowler made a 12-foot birdie putt on his first playoff hole at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, edging out Colin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin two weeks after he missed out on his first major championship at the US Open.
Fowler, 34, earned his first win on the PGA Tour since winning the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open. He had a 54-hole lead at the US Open last month and at one tournament in each of the past two years.
After his blunder on the leaderboard at the Detroit Golf Club on Sunday, Fowler hit back on the tournament’s 72nd hole with a par of 145 that left him with a 3-foot birdie putt to move into a three-way tie with Morikawa and Hadwin at 24-under.
Fowler hit a errant tee shot directly into the playoff, and after a touchdown, his approach of 184 fell 11 feet from the cup.
Morikawa, meanwhile, was only inches tall on his approach, and instead of returning the ball to the hole, it bounced into the rough and his chip was short of a cup.
Hadwin had his first chance to make a birdie of the playoff, but his 22-foot putt flew wide of the hole.
Then Fowler rallied with a much-needed clutch shot for the win.
Morikawa scored an 8-under 64, better than Hadwin (67) and Fowler (68) in the final round.
While Fowler faltered, going 10 straight to stabilize the pars in a relatively easy course, Morikawa had four birdies on both the front and back nine. Morikawa bowled 10 feet for birdie at number 12, his fourth birdie in a six-hole stretch put him in a shot from Fowler, and he pulled him nine feet for birdie at number 14 to tie with Fowler on 23-under.
Peter Quest (65), Lucas Glover (65) and Taylor Moore (67) tied for fourth at 21-under. Kuest, who started the week ranked 789th in the world, did well enough to earn a spot in this week’s John Deere Classic in Illinois.
Play was halted on Saturday for 1 hour and 42 minutes due to lightning and the final round schedule was revised due to inclement weather in the forecast.
The leaders started Sunday morning about 5 hours earlier than the original schedule, with the threesomes starting on both the front and back nine.