Super Bowl Sunday was shaping up nicely for Rickie Fowler. He had just moved into a two shot lead at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and was about to tee off on the drive-able par four seventeenth hole.
The way he has been closing out tournaments lately a two stroke lead with two to play looked like money in the bank.
But that’s why they play the game.
Fowler”s driver ran through the green into the water behind the green and he was forced to take a drop. The best he could do was a bogey. Pair that with playing partner Hideki Matsuyama’s birdie and you had a tie heading into the 72nd hole.
Both players showed some grit as they rolled in birdie putts but all that did was send them to a playoff.
So while the world was watching the Super Bowl kickoff, Rickie and Hideki were going mano y mano. They parred 18, then they both birdied it. They moved to the tenth hole and parred that too.
It looked like they would miss the whole Super Bowl but then they headed back to 17 and Fowler was once again done it by that relatively short hole. He opted to leave the driver in the bag but his fairway wood found the water left of the green.
Hideki’s two put par ended Rickies misery and sent them off to watch the game.
It was Hideki’s second PGA Tour win and left Fowler gutted. This was one that got away.
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