Rickie Fowler is an American professional golfer who has won four times on the PGA Tour and twice on the European Tour. Throughout his amateur career, he held the number-one ranking in the globe for 37 consecutive weeks. In addition, he won the Western Junior once, the Sunnehanna Amateur twice, and twice helped the United States win the Walker Cup. He won the Kolon Korea Open in 2011; the Wells Fargo Championship, The Players Championship, the Deutsche Bank Championship, and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in 2015; the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in 2016; and The Honda Classic and the Hero World Challenge in 2017. Following his victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, he climbed to a career-high fourth position in the Official World Golf Ranking. He has achieved eight top-five finishes in majors, including once in each of the four majors within a single calendar year, but he has yet to win a major championship.
Youth and Early Life
Rick Yutaka Fowler was born in Murrieta, California on December 13, 1988, to trucking company proprietor Rod Fowler and Lynn Fowler. His parents and sister Taylor all participate in bicycle riding activities. Following in his father’s footsteps, he became a dirt racer, but after an injury in high school, he gave up riding and began learning golf from his grandfather. In the summer of 2005, he won the Western Junior and went on to assist the United States win the Walker Cup in 2007.
2007 was his senior year at Murrieta Valley High School, where he won the SW League Championship and helped his team reach the state championship. In October of that year, while attending Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, he won his first collegiate tournament by one stroke at the Fighting Illini Invitational.
He won the Sunnehanna Amateur in June 2007 and the Players Amateur the following month. In 2008, he successfully defended his Sunnehanna Amateur title. In 2009, he helped the United States defend the Walker Cup by winning all four matches, and he also placed third in the Sunnehanna Amateur.
Rickie Fowler’s Career
Rickie Fowler made his professional début in August 2009 at the Nationwide Tour’s Albertsons Boise Open. He placed second at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational that month. In October 2009, he competed in his first professional PGA Tour event, the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, and tied for seventh place. In the same month, he finished tied for second at the Frys.com Open at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In November 2009, he finished T2 at the Pebble Beach Invitational, an unofficial PGA Tour money event in which he was two shots behind the victor. In December, he placed 15th in qualifying school and earned his 2010 PGA Tour card.
In February 2010, he placed second with a 15-under-par score at the Waste Management Phoenix Open at the TPC Scottsdale course. With his runner-up finish at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, in June of that year, he entered the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
In October 2010, he became the youngest Ryder Cup participant in the United States and the second youngest worldwide, after Sergio Garcia of Spain. Despite making the error of forfeiting a hole on the first day of competition, he made a remarkable comeback on the final day and was consequently awarded ‘Rookie of the Year’.
His best performance to date was a tie for fifth place at The Open Championship in July 2011, followed by a tie for second at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational the following month. He tied for 51st place at the PGA Championship with a score of 286 and finished 43rd overall after posting two T52 finishes in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
In October 2011, he won his first professional tournament at the Kolon Korea Open on the OneAsia Tour. In May 2012, he won his first PGA Tour event at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte. The following week, he finished tied for second at The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for the fifth time in his career.
At the 2013 Australian PGA Championship, he finished in a tie for second place, four shots behind the victor Adam Scott. In April 2014, he finished T5 at the Master’s Tournament, and then he had the greatest performance of his career at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, finishing second at 1.
In July 2014, he tied for second at the Open Championship held at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, and then tied for third at the PGA Championship. With his eighth-place performance at The Tour Championship, he climbed to the tenth spot in the world rankings and secured ten top-ten finishes in 2013-2014.
In May 2015, he secured his second victory on the PGA tour with a playoff victory at The Players Championship. In September, he won his third PGA tour title at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second FedEx Cup Playoffs event, following a victory at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open on the European Tour.
He secured his first victory of 2016 with a final round of 69 at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, narrowly edging out Thomas Pieters of Belgium. Next, he placed second at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and 37th at the 2016 Olympics.
On February 26, 2017, he won The Honda Classic, his fourth PGA Tour victory, and reclaimed his position in the world’s top 10 golfers. In June of 2017, he tied for fifth at the U.S. Open for his sixth top-5 finish in a major, and despite a strong finish, he tied for fifth at the PGA Championship.
In November 2017, he placed second at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and won the Hero World Challenge the following month. In 2018, he tied for 11th place at the Waste Management Phoenix Open with three eagles in the third round and finished second at the Master’s Tournament with a 72-hole score of 14.
Awards & Achievements
Rickie Fowler became the third golfer, after Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, to finish in the top five at all four majors in the same calendar year, but the first to do so without winning any. At the OHL Classic, with his 12th runner-up finish, he became the 27th golfer in PGA Tour history to earn $30,000,000 in Tour earnings. He was awarded the ‘Ben Hogan Award’ in 2008 and the ‘Rookie of the Year award in 2010.
Personal History and Legacy
Since 2017, Rickie Fowler has dated amateur athlete and fitness model Allison Stokke. In June 2018, he announced his engagement to Stokke through an Instagram post.
Estimated Net Worth
American professional golfer Rickie Fowler has a net worth of $40 million. Rickie Fowler could make an individual feel inadequate. He began playing golf in his early teens, and unlike many of his youthful golf-playing peers, he did not have a coach.
Trivia
Rickie Fowler, whose mother is one-quarter Japanese and one-quarter Native American (Navajo), is proud of his heritage. His middle name is derived from his maternal grandfather, Yutaka Tanaka, whose name he has inscribed in Japanese script on his left bicep.