It wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the creation of LIV Golf last year but Sunday turned out to be a huge day for former Oklahoma State golfers.
Taking it all in was Ponte Vedra Beach resident Bob Dickson, one of the players from OSU who helped lay the groundwork for a steady stream of Cowboys who have lassoed trophies and titles in professional golf since the 1960s.
“I loved it … a couple of ‘Pokes winning the same day makes us all very proud,” said Dickson, who won twice on the PGA Tour and once on the PGA Tour Champions with a career on the PGA Tour executive staff in between.
Talor Gooch celebrates after winning the 2023 LIV Golf Andalucia at Real Club Valderrama in Cadiz, Spain. (Photo: Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Fowler birdied No. 18 in regulation to earn a playoff with Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa, and then birdied the 18th again on a 12-foot putt.
Gooch became the first three-time winner of LIV Golf events when he rolled in a 15-footer for birdie to beat Bryson DeChambeau by one shot.
Oklahoma State players have won eight tournaments on the two Tours combined this season.
In addition to Fowler’s victory last week and Gooch’s three LIV titles, Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open and the Wells Fargo Championship, Viktor Hovland won The Memorial and Charles Howell III won the opening LIV event of the season in Mexico.
Dickson is taking it all in with pride. He played for the Cowboys from 1964-1966 under Labron Harris Sr., and posted victories in the U.S. and British Amateurs during that time.
Bob Dickson won the U.S. and British Amateurs while playing college golf at Oklahoma State, and went on to win on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. (Provided photo)
Players such as Dickson, Labron Harris Jr., Danny and David Edwards and Dave Eichelberger begot Bob Tway and Scott Verplank. Then Howell and Hunter Mahan came along, who handed the baton to the likes of Fowler, Clark, Kevin Tway, Gooch, Hovland and Peter Uihlein.
“The golf culture at Oklahoma State has been very good for decades, a really good golf history,” Dickson said. “I’m really proud of these Cowboys.”
Fowler, Hovland and Clark, the PGA Tour winners from Oklahoma State this season, have combined for four victories, 22 top-10s and more than $28 million in earnings this season. Austin Eckroat seems poised to join them and had a runner-up finish at the Byron Nelson in April.
Clark is fourth on the FedEx Cup standings, Hovland sixth and Fowler eighth.
Cowboys on LIV Golf, Gooch, Howell, Uihlein and Matthew Wolff, have combined for three victories, nine top-10s and more than $32 million in earnings. Gooch leads LIV Golf’s points list, with Uihlein seventh and Howell 10th.
At the Farmers Insurance Open in January, I told Rickie Fowler that instructor Butch Harmon had predicted at the PGA Merchandise Show to me that his star-crossed pupil, winless for nearly four years at the time and having returned to his former instructor just months ago, would end his drought this year.
“Did he say which week?” Fowler asked with a wry smile.
It turns out Butch was right again. It wasn’t the U.S. Open, where Fowler shot a record-breaking 62 and held the 54-hole lead two weeks ago, nor the Travelers Championship where he carded a third-round 60 but couldn’t keep pace with eventual champion Keegan Bradley. But the stars were aligned on Sunday in Detroit, where Fowler birdied the 72nd hole to join a three-man playoff and birdied 18 again to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“He’s the best golf coach out there,” Fowler said during his winner’s press conference shortly after defeating Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa in the playoff to earn his sixth career PGA Tour title. “He does a great job with players, taking what they have and ultimately making them the best that they can be with who they are and how they swing and making what they do well that much better and bring up the weaknesses.”
Fowler developed his flat, looping swing as a kid under the watchful eye of instructor Barry McDonnell, who taught at Murrieta Valley Golf Range in Murrieta, California. McDonnell died in June 2011 at age 75 from complications related to a heart attack. Fowler spent the better part of the next two years without a coach but in December 2013, he hooked up with Harmon for the first time in an effort to boost his performance in the four majors. That year, Fowler finished in the top 5 in all of golf’s biggest championships with his re-tooled swing. He won the 2015 Players Championship and reached as high as No. 4 in the world but never broke through at a major.
Rickie Fowler and his caddie Ricky Romano react with joy after making birdie on the 18th green to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic in a playoff against Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa at Detroit Golf Club on Sunday, July 2, 2023. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Network)
Part of what has made Harmon an invaluable resource to top pros over the years is his willingness to call a spade a spade. The last thing pupils like Rickie, Phil or Tiger needed over the years under Harmon’s tutelage was another yes man. In 2017, Harmon recounted on Sky TV, where he worked as an analyst, that he gave Fowler some tough love.
“And he didn’t like it,” Harmon recalled. “I said, ‘You gotta decide are you going to be a Kardashian or are you going to be a golf pro?’ You’re the king of social media, you’re all over these Snapchats and all these things … “You need to reach down and grab your ears and get your head out of your you-know-what and get back to work.”
Harmon remained in Fowler’s corner until he announced his retirement in 2019 and no longer was a regular presence at PGA Tour events.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuFfqZuNjKf/?hl=en
“Our split was really just because he stopped traveling, and then things weren’t working the last few years,” Fowler said Sunday.
He began working with instructor John Tillery, who had great success with Fowler’s friend Kevin Kisner. Fowler goes to great lengths in every interview to credit Tillery for teaching him many things during the ensuing years but the partnership didn’t bear fruit.
Fowler went 29 consecutive events without recording a top-10 finish, his ranking dropped to 185th and he rarely qualified for major championships. His ball-striking stats plummeted outside the top 100 and devoting so much time to re-tooling his swing had an unforeseen consequence: his trusty putting stroke began misbehaving to such an extent that he fell outside the top 160 in 2022.
Rickie Fowler and Butch Harmon ahead of the 144rd Open Championship at The Old Course at St. Andrews. (Photo: Steve Flynn-USA TODAY Sports)
To his credit, Fowler just kept his head down and soldiered on. He still signed every autograph and answered every media interview question wondering when he’d break out of his slump.
“He’s just stayed the same Rickie,” Max Homa said. “I think some people when they go through it, you kind of become like a shell of yourself and you go through maybe some mental torture when you’re playing golf.”
As tough as it was for Fowler’s fan base to stomach his dip in performance, it may have been toughest on Harmon.
“When Rickie went through his bad stretch, it was brutal to watch,” Harmon told Golf Digest. “I knew how good he could be, but his swing wasn’t producing. After a while, he lost his confidence, too. But he never wavered as a person, signing all the autographs, and giving his time. If the world was full of Rickie Fowlers, it would be one hell of a place.”
Fowler parted ways with Tillery in the fall and reconnected with Harmon. The results were instantaneous as Fowler finished T-6 at the Fortinet Championship in September and held the 54-hole lead at the Zozo Championship in October before faltering in the final round.
CBS lead analyst Trevor Immelman spent a couple of days with Fowler and Harmon in Las Vegas, where he lives and still teaches, during the Shriners Children’s Open and Butch walked Immelman through the changes. He loved what they were working on, and could see it bleeding in slowly on the golf course.
“Which is the last hurdle,” Immelman said. “It took a little while to unravel the knot.”
“Butch is great, just his voice and having him in your corner,” Fowler said during the U.S. Open. “Just telling you something to give you a little confidence to go out there and just go play golf and keep it simple.”
Simple to say, but harder to do. Nevertheless, Fowler’s game has been building to victory: 12 finishes inside the top 20 in his last 13 starts; impressive gains in nearly every statistical category; and back inside the top 50 in the world. (He jumped to No. 23 after the win.) Older and wiser, Fowler is married and a parent to Maya. He remains a darling of corporate America but his “Kardashian days” are behind him.
“It’s definitely been long and tough. A lot longer being in that situation than you’d ever want to,” Fowler said. “But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now.”
What Fowler has accomplished in eight months since he began sending swing videos to Harmon again is nothing short of remarkable. Speaking to Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio, Harmon said, “This one meant more to me personally than a lot of the major I’ve won with different guys.”
The 34-year-old won the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday for his sixth PGA Tour victory and first since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. Fowler beat Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin in a three-way playoff on the first extra hole to claim the title and the top prize.
For his efforts, Fowler will take home $1.58 million, while Morikawa and Hadwin will each leave with $783,200. A trio of players – Taylor Moore, Peter Kuest and Lucas Glover – tied for fourth at 21 under and each banked $370,333 in winnings.
There were 84 golfers who made the cut this week, most on Tour this season.
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Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
FAIRWAY WOODS:Cobra Aerojet LS (13.5 degrees), with Aldila Tour Green Graphene TX shaft, Cobra King LTDx LS (17.5 degrees), with UST Mamiya LINQ White 8 shaft.
GRIPS: Golf Pride Tour Velvet (full swing) / SuperStroke Tour 3.0 17-inch (putter).
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Rickie Fowler buried a 12-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to win a battle with Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa in Detroit and end a four-year victory drought at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“I knew it was just a matter of time with the way I was playing,” said Fowler, who notched his sixth career PGA Tour title.
It had been 1,610 days, or 4 years, 4 months, 29 days since his last win at the 2019 WM Phoenix Open, the longest victory drought of his Tour career.
Ten months ago, he was ranked No. 185 in the Official World Golf Ranking and barely qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Late last year, Fowler returned to working with his former instructor Butch Harmon and his game has made steady progress. He entered this week having finished in the top 20 in 12 of his 15 starts this year.
“It’s tough when you’re struggling for that long of a period of time,” said Fowler, noting that his play was building to this victory. “How I’ve played is some of the best if not the best I’ve felt about my game and on the course really ever.”
After inclement weather in the forecast moved up final-round tee times at Detroit Golf Club and forced the use of preferred lies, the field dealt with intermittent showers and muggy conditions. Three players looking to end winless droughts emerged in a battle down the stretch, setting up for a thrilling finish.
Fowler, who held the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open two weeks ago, shot 64 on Saturday to claim a one-stroke lead. But he was 2-for-10 in converting 54- hole leads and almost let this one slip away too. He made birdie on three of his first seven holes, including a 46-footer at No. 2, to stretch his lead to two but failed to capitalize on the par 5s and lost the lead late on the back nine. When it mattered most, the 34-year-old out of Oklahoma State stiffed his approach at 18 to 3 feet.
“Our back was against the wall,” said Fowler of his dramatic 72nd-hole wedge from 147 yards. He cashed in the putt for 68.
Returning to 18 for the first playoff hole, Fowler flared his drive right into trouble but he got relief from casual water and had a clean look at the green and knocked his approach to 11 feet, which turned out to be closest of the three playoff contestants.
Morikawa, who hadn’t won in two seasons and nearly two years – an eternity for the 26-year-old two-time major winner – shot a bogey-free 8-under 64.
“Playoffs suck when you’re on the wrong side of them,” Morikawa said. “You put everything you want into it and comes down to one hole, but that’s what golf is. You’ve got to perform, you’ve got to execute the shots.”
He erased a four-stroke deficit by making six birdies in his first 12 holes, and chipped close at the par-5 17th to become the first player to reach 24 under and grab the lead for the first time in the tournament. His birdie putt at 18 to tie the course record lipped out of the left side of the cup. His approach in the playoff airmailed the green and his birdie chip from just off the green came up short.
“I truly thought I hit the perfect shot and I just was a little juiced, went a little far,” Morikawa said of his second shot at the playoff hole.
Hadwin, 35, was seeking his first win since the 2017 Valspar Championship, a drought even longer than Fowler, something that wasn’t lost on Hadwin or his caddie Joe Cruz.
“I looked at Joe on I think 15 and said, ‘Why don’t we do this more often? This is fun,’ ” Hadwin recounted.
Hadwin, who shot a final-round 67, made it a three-way tie for the lead at 23 under with a birdie at 15 and tied Morikawa with a birdie at 17. His approach to 18 rolled off the green, but he got up and down to shoot 67 and join Morikawa at 24-under 264. Hadwin’s 22-foot birdie effort at the first playoff hole burned the left edge.
“That putt on the playoff there looked really good, just a little bit hard,” he said.
Fowler’s winning putt benefited from a free read from Hadwin, and he rolled it in and soaked in the moment.
“I was kind of just still and quiet and everyone was going crazy around me,” he said. “It was a nice moment just to kind of feel like the weight on my shoulders was finally off.”
The slow-play police finally handed out a ticket on Saturday.
England’s Richard Bland was hit with the first slow-play penalty on LIV Golf during the second round of the tournament at Valderrama Golf Club in Spain.
At the 217-yard, par-3 15th hole, Bland took too long to play his tee shot. Here’s the explanation via a statement from LIV.
“In round two, the group of Dean Burmester, Sergio Garcia and Richard Bland were officially warned by a rules official after their 4th hole of the day (hole 8) where the group was out of position on the golf course as well as behind in relation to time par,” the release said. “After their 9th hole of the day (hole 13) the group, who had further lost position on the course, was officially timed by a rules official. In accordance with the LIV Golf League Pace of Play Policy, ‘A player has 40 seconds to play each stroke, with an additional 10 seconds if they are the first to play any stroke in the group.’
“On the tee of the 15th hole, Richard Bland, who was first to play, received a time of 84 seconds for his first stroke. This exceeded the allotted time per the policy. Bland was immediately notified by an official and assessed a one-stroke penalty. With the one-stroke penalty, Bland’s score of 4 on the par-3 15th hole resulted in a score of 5.”
Slow play penalties are rare on the PGA Tour. Jon Catlin, who plays regularly on the DP World Tour, was the most recent to be assessed one at the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah. But it has been under the spotlight this season despite pace of play being the scourge of the professional game for years. PGA Tour veteran Adam Hadwin noted that his wife, Jessica, called him out recently for his own slow play.
“[She said], ‘You look uncomfortable out there; you look like you’re deciding too much [and] taking too long,’” Hadwin told CBS during his post-round interview at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. “[She continued,] ‘It’s not just me. The fans in the crowd at LACC, apparently, were calling me out for it too.’”
Hadwin took note and on Saturday he tied the course record at Detroit Golf Club, shooting 9-under 63 to leap into contention for his second PGA Tour title.
Here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Will Sunday be the day?
With 18 holes remaining at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, Rickie Fowler owns the 54-hole lead at 20 under.
Fowler ended his day with a flurry, birdieing five of his final six holes to earn the top spot on the leaderboard all by himself. This performance isn’t coming from out of the blue. In his last three starts, Fowler tied for 13th at the Travelers Championship, for fifth at the U.S. Open and for ninth at the Memorial Tournament.
We’ll have to wait and see if he can close the deal this time around.
Due to inclement weather, tee times have been moved up to the morning and groups of three will be sent off both tees.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
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1st tee
Tee time
Players
6:45 a.m.
Sam Ryder, MJ Daffue, Callum Tarren
6:55 a.m.
Doug Ghim, Ben Griffin, Max Homa
7:05 a.m.
S.Y. Noh, Chad Ramey, Brett Stegmaier
7:15 a.m.
J.J. Spaun, Russell Knox, Trevor Cone
7:25 a.m.
Satoshi Kodaira, Ludvig Aberg, Sam Bennett
7:35 a.m.
Ryan Palmer, Kyle Reifers, Keegan Bradley
7:45 a.m.
Tyler Duncan, Sungjae Im, Vince Whaley
7:55 a.m.
Cam Davis, Chez Reavie, Zecheng Dou
8:05 a.m.
Adam Schenk, Alex Noren, Troy Merritt
8:15 a.m.
Nicolai Hojgaard, Peter Malnati, Chris Kirk
8:25 a.m.
Taylor Moore, Lucas Glover, Brian Harman
8:35 a.m.
Dylan Wu, Collin Morikawa, Justin Lower
8:45 a.m.
Peter Kuest, Aaron Rai, Carl Yuan
8:55 a.m.
Rickie Fowler, Adam Hadwin, Taylor Pendrith
10th tee
Tee time
Players
6:45 a.m.
Andrew Landry, Kelly Kraft, Davis Thompson
6:55 a.m.
Harry Higgs, Chesson Hadley, Alex Smalley
7:05 a.m.
Stephan Jaeger, Carson Young, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
7:15 a.m.
Kevin Tway, Chase Johnson, Brice Garnett
7:25 a.m.
Zach Johnson, Greyson Sigg, Garrick Higgo
7:35 a.m.
Nate Lashley, Luke Donald, Brendon Todd
7:45 a.m.
Vincent Norrman, Matthias Schwab, S.H. Kim
7:55 a.m.
Will Gordon, Scott Stallings, Adam Svensson
8:05 a.m.
Hank Lebioda, Ryan Moore, Charley Hoffman
8:15 a.m.
Robert Streb, Martin Laird, Justin Suh
8:25 a.m.
Sepp Straka, Nick Watney, Davis Riley
8:35 a.m.
Robby Shelton, Ryan Gerard, Ryan Brehm
8:45 a.m.
Henrik Norlander, Kyle Westmoreland, Sam Stevens
8:55 a.m.
Matt Wallace, Paul Haley II, Danny Willett
How to watch
You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV. ESPN+ is the exclusive home for PGA Tour Live streaming. All times Eastern.
Like most years, we had a bunch of names most of us have never heard of near the top of the leaderboard. Some of the marquee names made a move. Some marquee names made a move in the wrong direction.
And for the fourth straight year, there won’t be a repeat champion.
So pretty much par for the course at the halfway point of the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Detroit Golf Club.
At the very top of the leaderboard sat two journeymen and two Taylors. Taylor Moore, a first-time winner in March at the Valspar Championship, and Canadian Taylor Pendrith held a one-shot lead at 13-under 131. Moore, who’s ranked 51st in the world, shot 67 on Friday. Pendrith, who’s ranked 127th, shot a 64.
Hot on their heels were two of the tournament’s biggest names. Rickie Fowler caught fire late in the afternoon, eagled the par-5 17th, added six more birdies and shot 65 to reach 12-under 132. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa eagled the par-5 14th, shot 67 and was at 11-under 133.
Fowler struggled on the “bouncy” and “beat up” greens in the first round, but avoided that problem by simply hitting it close for several tap-ins Friday. Two weeks ago at the U.S. Open, he closed with a 75 and tied for fifth. Last week at the Travelers Championship, he followed a third-round 60 with a 69 in final round and tied for 13th.
On Saturday, Fowler will be in the second-to-last group, in prime position knowing what he must, and must not, do.
“I mean, the biggest thing, we can’t try and press too hard,” he said. “I definitely know we can win. … How I’ve played is some of the best if not the best I’ve felt about my game and on the course really ever.”
This is the blessing and the curse of the Rocket. Anybody — and I mean anybody — can win this thing.
Rickie Fowler walks to the second green during Round 2 of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Friday, June 29, 2023, at the Detroit Golf Club.
Fowler, a big fan favorite here, can bounce back from his U.S. Open faceplant and win this thing. But so can a guy you’ve probably never heard of named Andrew Landry. He won two tournaments a few years ago, but now he’s the 660th-ranked player in the world and on the road back from two shoulder surgeries. He had a bogey-free round with nine birdies for a 63 that tied Nate Lashley’s 2019 tournament record. That put him at 10-under 134.
Moore’s another example of a player on his own road to redemption. He was lucky to survive a collapsed lung in 2019 and missed the cut in his past two tournaments. Last year, he finished sixth at the Rocket and now he’s regaining his confidence with everything clicking. He went out early in the morning and outplayed partner Max Homa, the world No. 9 who shot 68.
“It might be a little bit of that,” he said of his growing confidence, “but golf’s just such a finicky game.”
In a way, I’ve always looked at the Rocket as a proving ground on the PGA Tour. A place where people can find their swings and some confidence. Or where players suddenly lose their mojo and make their exit.
— Rocket Mortgage Classic (@RocketClassic) June 30, 2023
Defending champion Tony Finau closed with a 38 on the back nine, shot 72-71 to finish at 1-under 143. The cut was at 4-under 140. Finau is still looking for his first top 10 since he won the Mexico Open in April.
Justin Thomas, a two-time major champ who made his Rocket debut, was the tournament’s biggest disappointment. He rallied from a disastrous opening 76 with a 69 on Friday and finished at one-over 145.
Playing well at the right time is always the key winning in golf. But so is the right attitude and it’s a secret Morikawa might have a unlocked better than anyone so far this week in Detroit. The player with an ever-present smile kept his promise to sign autographs following a quick break after his first round and he’s embraced the city, having dinner downtown taking in the Morgan Wallen concert at Ford Field.
“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Look, golf is meant to be enjoyable. We’re out here to have a good time. It’s frustrating at times as well, but so far this week has been amazing. The people out here, the fans have been great, we saw a lot of people out here today. So it’s been a nice ride.
“This is when work really starts. Make the weekend, you’re in contention and we just want to post two really low numbers this weekend.”
That’s certainly the key for Morikawa and Fowler. But it could also be the key for half of the remaining field.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
Rickie, Collin and Ludvig are lurking heading into the weekend at Detroit Golf Club.
DETROIT – Taylor Moore is striking a pose this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The 29-year-old Arkansas grad backed up his opening-round 64 with a 67 at Detroit Golf Club on Friday to share the 36-hole lead with Taylor Pendrith.
Moore, who claimed his first PGA Tour win at the Valspar Championship in March, had missed three straight cuts and shot in the 70s in 11 of his last 13 rounds.
“I think in the past I might have hit panic a little bit with how my game’s been, scores that I posted, tried to really reinvent some stuff and try to make a quick fix,” Moore said. “But my golf swing’s good, mentality’s good, just going to keep playing golf and I feel like I would eventually play myself out of some of the scores I was shooting. Thus far I’ve done that.”
Indeed, he has thanks to a hot putter. Moore ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting (+7.602), and already holed more than 226 feet of putts. But his focus has been on holding his finish on his swing, and so far it’s done the trick.
“That’s kind of just always been something for me as a junior golfer all the way through my golf career, that’s kind of brought me back just to hitting better shots and more quality shots and just kind of staying there until the ball’s finished,” he said. “That’s something I’ve tried to bring back this week.”
Here are four more things to know about the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Here’s everything you need to know for the third round of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
The first 36 holes of the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club are in the books and it’s time for moving day.
Taylor Moore and Taylor Pendrith, who tied for second at this event in 2022, are tied for the lead at 13 under while Rickie Fowler and Ludvig Aberg sit T-3 at 12 under. Fowler is looking for his first win since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. Aberg has finished inside the top 25 in his last two PGA Tour starts.
Collin Morikawa, who missed the cut last week at the Travelers Championship, is tied for fifth at 11 under.
