Arriving star Fowler could fill resume gap after 66 at Disney
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Unprompted and unprodded, Arnold Palmer threw an increasingly recognizable name on the table.
Standing in the middle of his garage workshop a few hundred yards from his Bay Hill office, Palmer was taping an instructional segment for the Golf Channel on Thursday morning when he was asked to look ahead to the 2011 season.
| Children's Miracle Network Classic |
The King broke out the crystal ball. He only mentioned a couple of names.
One of them belonged to Rickie Fowler.
"He's a potential," Palmer said enthusiastically. "He's dynamite. He could be."
He means the real deal, to complete the thought.
Palmer had no idea that roughly five miles away as the crow flies, Fowler was torching the Palm Course at Disney World at that very moment, shooting a 6-under 66 to jump to the top of the leaderboard during the morning wave of the Children's Miracle Network Classic, the PGA Tour's season finale.
Informed of this fact a few moments later, Palmer beamed. Always nice to have your prognostication skills validated, though Fowler is by no means still a secret, even as a 21-year-old rookie. Palmer, a great grandfather at age 80, poked fun at the California kid, as many have done before him.
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| Rickie Fowler's look more reflects his motocross past than his current status as a top PGA Tour rookie. (Getty Images) |
Mostly, Fowler has painted scoreboards red this year, which hasn't exactly come as a surprise. He nearly won a tour event last year in Arizona, contended at Phoenix and Memorial and delivered two huge putts on the 18th hole in matches at the Ryder Cup last month.
Palmer's grandson Sam Saunders, who is a couple of years older than Fowler, is trying to ply his trade as a pro, and the King has several times counseled Sam on the importance of developing a personal style. Not many players these days are distinctive, to say the least.
Fowler, who rode motocross as a kid, looks like he just fell off a skateboard. Palmer was asked if any current players had a definitive sense of style and winked.
"Let's see, Hogan, Nelson ... " Palmer said coyly.
Those icons aren't exactly current or contemporary, which was exactly his point. The last guy on tour you could identify from two fairways over might have been the late Payne Stewart. Fowler, Palmer acknowledged, has individualistic style in spades -- from his colorful attire and bushy hair to his homemade, loopy swing.
In a sport filled with vanilla, Fowler is rocky road. It's a square-peg, round-hole deal. Golf analogy clearly intended. It's hard to envision his star rising any faster, unless he wins this week in the tour's season finale.
Wednesday afternoon, a throng of young kids, perhaps a dozen, staked out the Palm Course driving range at Disney after hearing that Fowler was on his way. Fowler, who flew to Orlando from China with a brief stop on the West Coast to recharge his batteries, walked outside the ropes to pose for pictures, his lime-green cap turned fashionably backward.
"It's pretty cool," Fowler said. "I definitely like to have fans, I like to have an influence on other people, and definitely like to draw new fans in.
"I guess I have more of a draw to the younger crowd. It's always cool to see more and more kids showing up and getting their interest in golf up."
As we all know, that demographic basically remains untapped in golf -- much to the chagrin of many ... and relief of others. Not everybody, including a few folks at the very top of the tour totem pole in Ponte Vedra Beach, think Fowler's look is such a great idea for a sport schooled in polo shirts and classicism.
Others would love to clone the kid. Mac Barnhardt, the manager for several top players including Stewart Cink, Davis Love, Lucas Glover and Jonathan Byrd, was watching the teen tableau with Fowler with great interest. Tuesday, Barnhardt, one of the sharpest agents in the business, had discussed at great length the notion that he could generate a tidal wave of business for a talented pro client who had tattoos, earrings and a distinctly Mountain Dew-style skater vibe that appealed to the next generation.
"But he has to be legit," Barnhardt said. "It can't be faked. It has to be sincere."
Speaking of which, in a crazy irony, he was discussing the same subject Wednesday when Fowler appeared and began schmoozing with the teenage fans on the back of the range. The kids clamored around him like they were 8 years old and he was Buzz Lightyear.
"Did you hear that?" Barnhardt asked after Fowler finished signing autographs and walked away.
No, what do you mean?
"He just said thank you to those fans," Barnhardt said.
In other words, Fowler gets it.
Fowler has been bouncing around various continents the past month, logging 30,000 air miles playing in the U.K., the States and two events in Asia, and he didn't get back from his event last week in China until Monday. He's in the process of rehabbing a waterfront property in Jupiter, Fla., located a few hours down the Florida Turnpike.
"The jet skis are on order and there's a possible boat in the future," he said.
Spoken like a true X Games devotee. Hilariously, Fowler purchased the home from an older couple, so it needed some freshening. They insisted that a couple of gaudy chandeliers and Roman backyard statues not convey in the purchase.
"No argument," he cracked.
Taking a page from Palmer and forecasting a bit, there's little room for argument on whether Fowler will win the Rookie of the Year award for 2010, either. He and Rory McIlroy, who unlike Fowler has won a PGA Tour event this year, are the clear frontrunners. But McIlroy surely hurt his chances when the peer ballots are cast when he announced this week that he wasn't going to play on the U.S. tour next year.
Fowler could effectively cement it in stone this week with his first victory, capping a whirlwind season, even for the most rambunctious of kids.
"It's been so busy that I really haven't had time to sit back and relax," he said. "Obviously we've had a really good year. Just a win short -- I think that's the only thing on the checklist that we really didn't take care of.
"It's gone by fast, but we've done a lot of things, so you know, you look back at it, I don't know how we fit that much into that short of a time period."
