The takes flowed after Rickie Fowler won the Honda Classic on Sunday. You knew they would. For some reason, Fowler is as polarizing as it gets on the PGA Tour. Despite his internal reputation as one of the nicest, most laid-back golfers on tour, everyone has a stark opinion on his game and his life (good and bad).

NBC’s Johnny Miller had an intriguing take on Fowler as he came to the 72nd hole at PGA National with a four-stroke lead and his fourth PGA Tour win essentially in the bag.

This got me thinking about player perception versus reality. Reputations are difficult to shake in sports, and golf might be the premiere example of that. Let’s take a look at five golfers, including Fowler, whose realities do not match the perception some people have of them.

Sergio Garcia

Perception: Choke artist who has never really won anything and can’t putt.
Reality: One of the great modern-day European golfers.

Garcia is my go-to golfer when it comes to this discussion. You can bend his career however you want to because of how it has unfolded. 

On one hand, he has 22 top-10 finishes at majors. On the other, he has zero majors. On one hand, he has nine PGA Tour wins, 12 on the European Tour and five more on the Asian Tour. On the other, shouldn’t he have more given that he was vying to take down Tiger Woods as a teenager?!

Nobody’s legacy would be more affected by a major win this year or next than Garcia. Grab a green jacket or Claret Jug, and all of a sudden he’s one of the great Europeans of all time. If he doesn’t, then he’s “just” a solid European with a reputation as a great Ryder Cup player.

But this should not be the reality when it comes to Garcia. We should not think of him differently because he missed a major by a single stroke in 2007. When you have this much capital built up (22 top-10s at majors!) and have done it for this long, your reality is cemented. The discussion becomes more about how much we as fans and media value major championships and less about how good you were as a golfer.

Rickie Fowler

Perception: Expectations outsize game, and he can’t roll with the big boys.
Reality: One of the few stars who has gone beyond the labels that were put on him.

Mini tours across the country are littered with can’t-miss golf prospects who missed. The sport is unrelenting and unforgiving, and it does not behoove you when the PGA Tour (and numerous sponsors) pick you from the beginning as “next.” Oh sure, financially you’re fine, but money doesn’t shoot 66s, and a sense of satisfaction can overwhelm the drive you need to be great on the PGA Tour.

Fowler, when normalized against his peers, has gotten better at every stage of his career. That is difficult to do. He has also run ramrod into some bad luck in big tournaments over the course of his career. Jake Nichols put together this terrific graph back in 2015 that showed how Fowler’s scores didn’t necessarily match how little he had won.

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Jake Nichols

Fowler might also be a victim of the bias we have in favor of PGA Tour events. His wins in South Korea, Scotland and Abu Dhabi were all over big names (Rory McIlroy twice), and he deserves credit for them. Fowler’s stardom should not be held against him -- we built that, not him. He needs to win more, yes, but when you look a little past the actual trophies, you’ll see one of the most consistent, best golfers on tour over the last half decade. He finished in the top 15 in strokes gained in the last two years and is No. 1 on the PGA Tour so far this season.

Rory McIlroy

Perception: A solid player -- Europe’s Fowler, but he’ll never be Tiger.
Reality: One of the 20 best golfers ever (right now) with a trajectory towards the top 10.

McIlroy said it best himself on the No Laying Up podcast last winter. If Jason Day and Dustin Johnson win three more majors, they get to him. If he wins three more, he gets to Arnold Palmer.

One thing to remember about McIlroy is how relatively little he plays. He has 13 PGA Tour wins in just 118 starts. That’s a winning percentage of .11. Fowler’s, for example, is .02, which is not bad. It’s just that 11 percent is historically great. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson also has 13 wins, but he’s done it in nearly 100 more starts. 

Did I mention McIlroy doesn’t turn 28 for another three months? 

Nobody will ever be Tiger Woods, but McIlroy is the chosen one of this generation. His accomplishments probably even been underrated a little bit given that he has faced stiffer overall competition than Woods did for most of his prime.

Dustin Johnson

Perception: Bad putter, and he only wins because of his length.
Reality: The biggest pelt-hanger in the game, and he has a solid flat stick to boot.

The list of courses D.J. has put away is impeccable. An unassailable assault on some of the most pristine tracks in the world. Look at this resume.

Since 2012, Johnson has only had one season outside the top 100 in strokes gained putting. He’s No. 31 this year. He was No. 36 last year. Not only has he become a better-than-average putter, he’s actually been quite good the last few seasons. And with the way he hits it, you can take a top-50 performance from him with the putter and translate it into three wins a year.

Also, let’s say he wins once a year for the next seven years. This seems like a conservative, fair estimate. He would join a group of just 37 men who have won 20 or more times on the PGA Tour. Johnson is slowly, inexplicably turning himself into an all-timer.

Phil Mickelson

Perception: Woods’ sidekick who grabbed a few of the tournaments Tiger didn’t win.
Reality: One of the 10 best golfers in the history of the sport.

The only golfer of the future generation with a real chance at touching Mickelson’s 42 PGA Tour wins is Jordan Spieth. Nobody else will come close, and I’m willing to bet Spieth doesn’t reach 40 either. Mickelson is an all-time top 10 golfer who could (and probably should) have won more major championships. Consider the following statistic about top-three finishes at majors.

Mickelson will be remembered probably as much for his goofy demeanor as he passes the torch from his generation to the next, but don’t let that detract from the fact that he’s one of the best to ever play.