//The PLAYERS > Rickie Makes his Statement through one of Golf’s Greatest Finishes

The PLAYERS > Rickie Makes his Statement through one of Golf’s Greatest Finishes

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Players

Chip Harp, Valdosta Today Sports

PONTE VEDRA BEACH — The Players Championship concluded Sunday with one of the tournament’s, if not golf’s, best finishes.  The story lines, for once, matched the performance.  It was a case of no one giving the tournament away, but the best of each player besting his competitor.

The Players is special.  It’s not hosted by a sanctioning body.  The US Open, for example, is the championship tournament of the USGA.  The PGA Championship is hosted by the Professional Golfers Association (or the club pros organization).  The Open Championship is hosted by the Royal and Ancient Club in England and Scotland.  The Masters is, of course, the hallowed tournament of the all-mighty Augusta National Golf Club, probably the world’s most exclusive golf club.

But The Players tournament is just that, for the Players.  It’s the championship of the PGA Tour itself.  The players’ own championship.  That’s why it means so much.  And pays so well.

So, when the players participated in a confidential survey as to golf’s most overrated player, and Rickie Fowler topped the list (with Ian Poulter), all eyes looked to Fowler to demonstrate his worth.  Sunday afternoon, Fowler would do just that, and in historic fashion.

“Given the fact that early on this week, Rickie Fowler, by some of his peers, anonymously was called out as being overrated. I cannot remember a more ‘in-your face’ victory in any other endeavor, in any other sport, than what we saw this week in Rickie Fowler,” stated Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.

And that could have been an understatement.

As the tournament moved toward a climax on Sunday, at least a dozen players were still in contention for the championship.  Fowler, who had stayed close but not topped the leaderboard, had to make a move to be in contention.  Then, since he was playing earlier than Saturday’s leaders, he’d have to wait.

But move he did.

Fowler, incredibly, played 8 shots under par over the last 10 holes.  He posted the lowest number of shots on the last four holes in the tournament, ever, at 11. Better, he finished the last three signature holes at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course going Eagle (16), Birdie (17), and Birdie (18) to finish at -12 and in sole possession of the lead.

When Georgia alum Kevin Kisner, who led going into the final round, and superstar Sergio Garcia, took Fowler into a playoff, no one faltered.  Garcia dropped out after a solid but missed putt on 17.  When the remaining two players moved to 17, again, for sudden death, it wasn’t the impressive Kisner who faltered.  No, it was Fowler who bested his shot, sank a birdie putt, and proved his critics wrong.

“I think years from now when this becomes a major championship, perhaps the stories will look back to this day the same way they remember the 1935 Masters and the shot heard round the world, and they will talk about the shots that were out of this world today. Mind blowing number of shots. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen on display such athleticism, such guts, such precision such clutch performances by three admirable athletes,”  Chamblee continued.

All there felt they were a part of golf history.  All there felt Rickie Fowler had made one of sports’ most impressive statements.

As Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner said, “Rickie Fowler, all flash and no substance? Wrong. Rickie Fowler doesn’t win enough? Wrong. Rickie Fowler overrated? Dead wrong. Rickie Fowler is the PLAYERS Champion. That’s exactly right.”