Rickie Fowler is a cautionary tale in overexposing a superstar

[Holy Moses]

4 minutes ago, Ironman_32 said:

I think we have to remember how difficult it is to stay on tour and be successful. Guys like Charles Howell or Pat Perez, just because they don't have 20 wins each and a major or multiple majors doesn't mean that didn't have fantastic careers. Rickie did win the Players, so thats at least something. 

 

With Rickie, have to remember we can't have everyone be the man, or there would be no "the man". And think of how many guys are labeled the next big thing who had really good careers just not major/multiple major levels. 

 

At the end of the day you basically have two camps, people who think wins are all that matter, and people who think it doesn't matter really if you're still remembered. Not saying all these guys are playing just for popularity, but it is entertainment.  Does it matter more if you have multiple majors (say Martin Kaymer) but people kind of forget about you, or no majors but you're a high draw?  

Problem is we might remember Rickie for his ubiquitous commercials and not for his game

[Ironman_32]

6 minutes ago, Holy Moses said:

Problem is we might remember Rickie for his ubiquitous commercials and not for his game

True.

 

But do more people know who Jack Nicklaus is or Arnold Palmer? Do more people know AP for the golf he played or for the products/drink?

[Holy Moses]

1 minute ago, Ironman_32 said:

True.

 

But do more people know who Jack Nicklaus is or Arnold Palmer? Do more people know AP for the golf he played or for the products/drink?

I would say for golf, but it’s probably pretty close

[Ironman_32]

58 minutes ago, Holy Moses said:

I would say for golf, but it’s probably pretty close

To clarify, I meant more his place in golf history. I think people know him as a golfer, maybe a Masters champ, but the general person would prob be hard pressed to tell you he won 7 majors. 

 

 

[dlygrisse]

41 minutes ago, Ironman_32 said:

To clarify, I meant more his place in golf history. I think people know him as a golfer, maybe a Masters champ, but the general person would prob be hard pressed to tell you he won 7 majors. 

 

 

Arnie and Rickie both did a tremendous job of building a brand and building a big fan base.  They both are/were popular with fans and treat the fans as well as anyone in any sport ever.  Arnie will always have more respect because he had a more dominant game.  He was a great golfer then he became a brand, Rickie figured out how to flip the script a bit.  Arnie and Mark McCormick invented sports marketing.  Every athlete who has an endorsement contract owes them a little thanks. 

[miamistomp]

 I like Rickie but lately he just looks lost

 You are more likely to see him in a commercial on Sunday than on a leaderboard

[Nels55]

15 minutes ago, dlygrisse said:

Arnie and Rickie both did a tremendous job of building a brand and building a big fan base.  They both are/were popular with fans and treat the fans as well as anyone in any sport ever.  Arnie will always have more respect because he had a more dominant game.  He was a great golfer then he became a brand, Rickie figured out how to flip the script a bit.  Arnie and Mark McCormick invented sports marketing.  Every athlete who has an endorsement contract owes them a little thanks. 

I am not so sure that Arnie and McCormick invented sports marketing.  Christy Walsh was Babe Ruth's agent and did pretty much the same things for the Babe.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Babe-Ruth/Later-life-and-legacy

 

Nothing new under the sun!

[YMark]

21 hours ago, miamistomp said:

 I like Rickie but lately he just looks lost

 You are more likely to see him in a commercial on Sunday than on a leaderboard

 

I agree that he looks like he's lost his way. That was pretty evident this past week. He can sure make some birdies but nobody gives them back faster. And forget Sundays. 

[ProStryker]

I do believe that his skills started to diminish about the time he started rocking the horrible porn ‘stash. 

[BNGL]

I’ve been on record of saying the talent doesn’t match the hype BUT...

I’m not sure you could ever over expose Rickie. If I was an executive with the PGA Tour I’d be asking Rickie to represent the Tour at every event possible, because he is genuinely that “clean” of a person. He’s one of the nicest, most thoughtful, and genuine players on tour today. We were members at the same club in Florida, I don’t know him well, but from talking to him around the club or seeing him around town in Jupiter he’s a fantastic person who happens to be great at golf. 
 

The tour as a whole is in such a great spot right now, in my opinion, you’ve got a crop of young guys that are playing at a really high level getting some wins generating buzz, you’ve got some international players that are in the mix routinely, the older players are hanging around still playing well, you’ve got one guy kinda trying to do his own thing, and then you have a “heel”. (Non golfers at church are noticing the stuff Patrick Reed did over the weekend, they asked me what I thought of it or have asked about Bryson after the restart etc). And Rickie is near the top of marketability amongst tour players, so while yes I’d agree you’re more likely to see him on a commercial than a leaderboard nowadays I’d still market the hell out of him because he’s not a risk in my opinion. 

[tbowles411]

13 hours ago, YMark said:

 

I agree that he looks like he's lost his way. That was pretty evident this past week. He can sure make some birdies but nobody gives them back faster. And forget Sundays. 

He actually looked BETTER this week.  Trust the process!  LOL

[rkelso184]

I think the fact that we are 15 pages in still discussing someone who is searching ATM says a lot about who he is and the fans he has. Watch the new TM youtube clip, He even gets great exposure here. Regardless of his current form or his past major runner ups etc he is a great asset to the game. His young, funky, polite, grinds and most of all shows great respect to his sponsors and fans. 

 

I'm a huge fan and my kids love watching him when he comes on TV. I do agree with a lot of comments here and disagree with some also but we are all entitled to our opinions. 

I do think however we can all agree he is one of the most popular players in the game even with his slump ATM and I'm sure everyone wants to see him back fighting for constant top 10s. 

[Holy Moses]

10 hours ago, BNGL said:

I’ve been on record of saying the talent doesn’t match the hype BUT...

I’m not sure you could ever over expose Rickie. If I was an executive with the PGA Tour I’d be asking Rickie to represent the Tour at every event possible, because he is genuinely that “clean” of a person. He’s one of the nicest, most thoughtful, and genuine players on tour today. We were members at the same club in Florida, I don’t know him well, but from talking to him around the club or seeing him around town in Jupiter he’s a fantastic person who happens to be great at golf. 
 

The tour as a whole is in such a great spot right now, in my opinion, you’ve got a crop of young guys that are playing at a really high level getting some wins generating buzz, you’ve got some international players that are in the mix routinely, the older players are hanging around still playing well, you’ve got one guy kinda trying to do his own thing, and then you have a “heel”. (Non golfers at church are noticing the stuff Patrick Reed did over the weekend, they asked me what I thought of it or have asked about Bryson after the restart etc). And Rickie is near the top of marketability amongst tour players, so while yes I’d agree you’re more likely to see him on a commercial than a leaderboard nowadays I’d still market the hell out of him because he’s not a risk in my opinion. 

You might not be able to overexpose him as a marketer, but we are talking about as a professional golfer. But if he continues to drop in the world rankings and begins missing majors, advertisers might drop.

[tatertot]

Dudes made major bank ... lives a good life ... seems to have his priorities straight ... his family will never do without ... seems to be healthy ... without the distance of most of his contemporaries.

 

Doesn't seem to be a lot of cautions out there. He struck while the iron was hot and set himself up for life.

[BNGL]

11 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

You might not be able to overexpose him as a marketer, but we are talking about as a professional golfer. But if he continues to drop in the world rankings and begins missing majors, advertisers might drop.

Potentially they might, but that gets back to my main point that Rickie has that little bit extra that brings him beyond golf if that makes sense. When I was hosting events we used to see tons of people, mostly kids some adults though which was weird, wearing all orange puma gear. That following he cultivated will more than likely always view him positively and again if I am a business I want him still. 

[BlackDiamondPar5]

Sadly Rickie misses cut at waste management. He's rapidly running out of time to make The Masters. 😞

[BlackDiamondPar5]

As a Rickie fan I really hate to see this...

[Socrates]

Things don't look so good right now, but another guy that was a contender at the Phoenix Open was Stricker.  Had quite a lull in his career from 02-06 and brought it back for quite a while.

[YMark]

Fowler's putting has fallen off a cliff. Three 3 putts today from short distances. I honestly don't think his head is in the game.

[FakeClubPro]

On 1/31/2021 at 11:52 PM, dlygrisse said:

Arnie and Rickie both did a tremendous job of building a brand and building a big fan base.  They both are/were popular with fans and treat the fans as well as anyone in any sport ever.  Arnie will always have more respect because he had a more dominant game.  He was a great golfer then he became a brand, Rickie figured out how to flip the script a bit.  Arnie and Mark McCormick invented sports marketing.  Every athlete who has an endorsement contract owes them a little thanks. 

Arnie back in the day was a phenom with his Arnie's Army.  He was a post war golf version of The Beatles.  Women thought he was pretty hot and men thought he was cool.   His Army was pretty mean to young "fat" Jack too.  Tiger was or is richer than Arnie but not by much I think.   Arnie built a business on really modest purses for golf wins.  Arnie first guy with a jet?  He and McCormick changed things for golf and sports.

 

Rickie needs to go talk to Butch or somebody.  Seems to have worked for Spieth.  There are just so many great players now.  Jordan is back, JT, DJ, Brooks is back and Cantlay is really coming on like a rocket....and don't forget about Bryson and P Reed.  😄

[FakeClubPro]

On 2/2/2021 at 3:42 PM, rkelso184 said:

I think the fact that we are 15 pages in still discussing someone who is searching ATM says a lot about who he is and the fans he has. Watch the new TM youtube clip, He even gets great exposure here. Regardless of his current form or his past major runner ups etc he is a great asset to the game. His young, funky, polite, grinds and most of all shows great respect to his sponsors and fans. 

 

I'm a huge fan and my kids love watching him when he comes on TV. I do agree with a lot of comments here and disagree with some also but we are all entitled to our opinions. 

I do think however we can all agree he is one of the most popular players in the game even with his slump ATM and I'm sure everyone wants to see him back fighting for constant top 10s. 

 

I think everyone likes him.  He just has that something.  I think everybody here just wants to seem him doing better.

[YMark]

3 minutes ago, FakeClubPro said:

Rickie needs to go talk to Butch or somebody.  Seems to have worked for Spieth.  There are just so many great players now.  Jordan is back, JT, DJ, Brooks is back and Cantlay is really coming on like a rocket....and don't forget about Bryson and P Reed.  😄

Fowler used to work with Butch. Butch asked him if he want to be a major winner or be a Kardashian. He no longer works with Butch.

[dlygrisse]

6 minutes ago, FakeClubPro said:

Arnie back in the day was a phenom with his Arnie's Army.  He was a post war golf version of The Beatles.  Women thought he was pretty hot and men thought he was cool.   His Army was pretty mean to young "fat" Jack too.  Tiger was or is richer than Arnie but not by much I think.   Arnie built a business on really modest purses for golf wins.  Arnie first guy with a jet?  He and McCormick changed things for golf and sports.

 

Rickie needs to go talk to Butch or somebody.  Seems to have worked for Spieth.  There are just so many great players now.  Jordan is back, JT, DJ, Brooks is back and Cantlay is really coming on like a rocket....and don't forget about Bryson and P Reed.  😄

I think people forget just how great Arnie is sometimes.  I think he won his last major in 1964, but he stayed in the limelight for many years after.  The media loved him and he loved the attention.  Arnie in his prime was long and straight, he was a good iron player, good chipper  and great putter.  He could go low.  Arnie was a bit like Phil in that he had some spectacular wins and some spectacular crashes.  There will never be another like him. 

[BlackDiamondPar5]

2 hours ago, YMark said:

Fowler's putting has fallen off a cliff. Three 3 putts today from short distances. I honestly don't think his head is in the game.

Certainly his head may not be in the game as you suggest. If you look at the chart, his ranking started its precipitous fall in mid 2019. He got married in Oct 2019 and its just continued to drop like a rock since then.  Related? Who knows.    I really hope he's well, both physically and mentally, and having a great time with life.  I'm sure he's got plenty of coin and I'm guessing he's still one of the top tour earners with endorsements.  Also all kidding aside, that beautiful wife with washboard abs may be too much for him 🤣

[BlackDiamondPar5]

51 minutes ago, dlygrisse said:

I think people forget just how great Arnie is sometimes.  I think he won his last major in 1964, but he stayed in the limelight for many years after.  The media loved him and he loved the attention.  Arnie in his prime was long and straight, he was a good iron player, good chipper  and great putter.  He could go low.  Arnie was a bit like Phil in that he had some spectacular wins and some spectacular crashes.  There will never be another like him. 

Yes Arnie was loved and for good reason. Just a couple stories about Arnie--- I think it was mid-late 90's before I was into golf. My dad went to a local charity tournament at a small local club and Arnie was there to play.  He said Arnie stayed afterward until everyone that wanted to chat and get an autograph were gone.  In another instance at this same course, possibly at the same charity event, a volunteer asked Arnie for an autograph for his dad who was in the hospital.  He signed something for him and Arnie told him he'd catch up with him after the round because he'd like to call his dad and wish him well.  After the round sure enough Arnie caught up with the volunteer and they called his dad to brighten his day. Arnie was an amazing Ambassador for the game of golf his entire adult life.

[bscinstnct]

7 minutes ago, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

Yes Arnie was loved and for good reason. Just a couple stories about Arnie--- I think it was mid-late 90's before I was into golf. My dad went to a local charity tournament at a small local club and Arnie was there to play.  He said Arnie stayed afterward until everyone that wanted to chat and get an autograph were gone.  In another instance at this same course, possibly at the same charity event, a volunteer asked Arnie for an autograph for his dad who was in the hospital.  He signed something for him and Arnie told him he'd catch up with him after the round because he'd like to call his dad and wish him well.  After the round sure enough Arnie caught up with the volunteer and they called his dad to brighten his day. Arnie was an amazing Ambassador for the game of golf his entire adult life.

King just had that genuine quality of

 

Joie de vivre ; )

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bscinstnct]

On 2/9/2021 at 8:53 AM, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

As a Rickie fan I really hate to see this...

Hey, that’s cool, look, I made one for TW!

 

 

[Draw Driver]

I like Rick. Seems like a good guy. Regardless if he has fallen off a bit, still one of the absolute best in the world. Not ready to write him off yet by any means. Hope he can find a way to keep is Major appearance streak alive but if he misses The Masters that would surely be a true wake up call. At 32, there’s plenty of time to win more tournaments and a Major (Love, Mickelson, Garcia) in terms of longevity, even if his talent level isn’t yet proven to be of their caliber. If things continue to decline it wouldn’t be surprising to see more inner circle changes. Much is made of the putting; always difficult to sustain. Exacerbated by aging, swing changes, life changes etc. 

[grm24]

On 1/31/2021 at 5:36 PM, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

A year ago Rickie was 26 owgr this week, he's now 61.  With 2-1/2 months to The Masters I hope he has a path to making the tournament. 

He does. Couple top 5/10 finishes would help the cause greatly to return to the OWGR Top 50 by the week prior to The Masters. Or he can simply win a non opposite field PGA Tour (awarding full FEC points) event up to and including the week before The Masters. Just like Ian Poulter did a couple of seasons back in Houston.

Edited February 12, 2021 by grm24

[Draw Driver]

26 minutes ago, grm24 said:

He does. Couple top 5/10 finishes would help the cause greatly to return to the OWGR Top 50. Or he can simply win a non opposite field PGA Tour event up to and including the week before The Masters. Just like Ian Poulter did a couple of seasons back in Houston.

You’ve mentioned his pathway forward in a couple of threads now. I don’t think many are debating this. Even causal followers of the game get this as it’s typically mentioned on the broadcasts.

 

Rick’s play issues appear to be more systemic. It’s been awhile since his last Top Ten. 
 

http://www.owgr.com/Ranking/PlayerProfile.aspx?playerID=12965

 

Body language, shot reaction, demeanour etc. reflect a guy who just isn’t fully engaged, trusting what he’s doing or both. Maybe something is going on behind the scenes? 
 

He has good memories at The Players and Honda so maybe he can build on something there. 

Edited February 12, 2021 by Draw Driver