Rickie Fowler has not had a very good 2015-16 season. He missed the cut at the first two majors, failed to win the only tournament he was truly in contention for (Phoenix Open) and has opened himself up to potentially not make the Ryder Cup team after being named one of the members of the task force two years ago.

It has gotten so bad for Fowler that he committed to the Wyndham Championship recently as a last-minute desperation heave at scoring some Ryder Cup points to get back within the automatic qualifying zone.

Fowler really needed a good Olympics to potentially turn his year around, and he was not getting it early with a terrible 75 on the first day and an average 71 on the second.

Then, all of a sudden, he went out in 29 in Round 3 on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, rocketed into contention and briefly flirted with shooting a 59 before cooling off on the back nine. Fowler settled for a 64 and will enter the final round on Sunday inside the top 20. The 64 was his best score of the calendar year.

"You look at the scores and where you might get rewarded for a good round tomorrow," he told Golf Channel. "I really gave myself a good chance to backdoor a medal."

The old backdoor medal. Who cares, as long as there's something to hang around your neck other than a pair of headphones. So where did the boost for Fowler come from? There are a variety of hot-take theories so let me float mine out there. How about this guy.

"... I'm obviously over here rooting on the red, white and blue," Matthew McConaughey noted.

"Pretty cool that he was able to make it," Fowler told reporters on Friday after his round. " ... We've kind of stayed in touch with each other (on social media). Obviously we both have pretty busy schedules, so it's not easy to be in the same place at the same time. No better place than here at the Olympics. I know he's enjoying his Olympic experience going to some events."

Fowler will have to go low again on Sunday to snag one of those medals for his return trip to the United States. If he plays like he did on Saturday, he'll have a real chance.