Detroit — Rickie Fowler has been here from the beginning.
You best believe he’d love to be the last man standing at the last Rocket Classic. And it’s possible.
Fowler shot a Saturday 67 and was at 12 under through three rounds, three shots back of leader Davis Riley entering Sunday’s final round at Detroit Golf Club. Fowler has been the face of this tournament since it was announced in 2018.
He’s been a pitchman for Rocket (and previously Quicken Loans) for years, and he’s been pitch perfect in trumpeting the value of Detroit’s PGA Tour tournament, which is ending after eight years.
“It’s definitely been a bummer to kind of come into this knowing it was the last one,” Fowler said this week. “It’s been fun for me to have a partnership with Rocket and see this event make its way here, because that was always a dream of theirs to have an event back in Detroit.
“To see it continue to grow over the years, (I) felt like it just kept getting bigger and better.”
There have been a lot of big moments in the history of the Rocket classic, though none was bigger for the fans and the visibility than Fowler’s uber-popular victory in 2023.
That year, he made birdie on the 72nd hole on Sunday to get into a playoff, then made birdie again on that same 18th hole on the first playoff to seal the victory.
It ended a three-year winless drought for Fowler, and it gave Rocket the moment they dreamed of when Dan Gilbert brought the tournament to Detroit in 2019. Rocket made no bones about it. When the playoff began between Fowler, Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin in 2023, Rocket officials were on the tee wearing orange Puma hats.
That was Fowler’s sixth PGA Tour win, and his last. The gallery on the 18 that Sunday in 2023 was arguably the largest and loudest in tournament history, despite a ferocious storm approaching.
“Fans have always been great to me here and having the association with Rocket,” said Fowler, 37, who grew up in California, lives in Florida, but has a legion of fans in Michigan. “I think the win in ’23 helped solidify that.
“This has always been a fun week for us and a little bittersweet.”
He has an opportunity Sunday to make the finale a little more sweet than bitter.
Fowler stumbled early Saturday with a birdie at the par-4 second, but played bogey-free the rest of the way to get well within striking distance on a course where there already have been three 61s this week. He bemoaned leaving his 26-foot birdie putt on 18 just one rotation short, but he still got himself within three shots of the lead by day’s end.
The largest final-round comeback to win the Rocket Classic?
Three shots.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Rickie Fowler is face of PGA Tour in Detroit. He’d love the final bow
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tony Paul, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
