Overrated? Rickie Fowler’s grandstand finish in the gathering gloom at Gullane brought him another top title yesterday, securing the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open and giving the American a massive boost heading into the Open at St Andrews this week.
The 26-year-old who was said in a survey of his peers earlier this year to be the most overrated player on the PGA Tour – birdied three of the last four holes to sweep in and snatch the £550,000 first prize from Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Kuchar, hitting a career gap wedge to just a couple of feet at the last to close the door.
He therefore became the fourth American to win the Scottish Open title, his final round 68 for an 12-under total of 268 being just a shot better than Kuchar, who also shot a final round 68, and France’s Raphael Jacquelin, who nearly holed out from the fairway at the last to force a play-off.
Scotland’s Marc Warren, who finished with a best of the day 64, was in a tie for fourth with Joost Luiten and Eddie Pepperell another shot back.
“I definitely need to win a little more when it’s as pleasant as this,” he said. “It’s obviously great to come here and prepare for next week but to win as well.
“I know Phil won this event and then the Open and it’s going to take a lot more work next week, but we got the first leg done.”
The wind got up at last on Gullane Hill to especially tax the leaders when they went out in late afternoon, and at various points as many as 20 plkayers were within a couple of shot of the lead.
But the day was to be Fowler’s, as he added one of the European Tour’s premier prizes to the Players Championship he won in May, and showed how quickly he’s recovered from his nightmare performance in the US Open at Chambers Bay.
Playing in his trademark Sunday bright orange, Rickie had to mount a recovery in his final round as well, and never had the outright lead until he holed the short putt on the last that claimed victory.
Yet in slipping to nine-under with a bogey at the 14th, it seemed that he would have the same difficulties as the rest of the field in yesterday’s more blustery conditions.
“I just made one bad swing at 14, and my thought was that I just had to birdie the last four holes,” he said. “The course had been scoreable before but it was definitely a true test today.”
Fowler had played well in a tough links wind before, famously producing the best round on that squally Saturday at Sandwich in the 2011 Open and he quickly righted himself with a fine birdie at 15 and then another at 16 to tie Kuchar, who had moved into the lead with a birdie of his own at the same hole.
He had a putt for birdie at the short 17th which didn’t drop, but made no mistake at the 18th after Kuchar had finished before him on 11-under.
“I’d had good swings, and hit good putts those three previous holes but I saved the best swings until last, the good drive and the wedge,” he added. “Thankfully I didn’t have to think too much about that final putt.”
Fowler’s perfect drive over the danger in the fairway left the perfect distance and a precision gap wedge to less than a yard, and he holed that to clinch the title, Kuchar having to settle for second waiting on the practice range in hope of a play-off.
Fowler’s odds have slashed to 20-1 going into next week, as he attempts to emulate his friend Mickelson’s feat in 2013 of winning the Scottish and the Open in successive weeks. Every Open champion since Louis Oosthuizen in 2010 has played in the Scottish Open the week before the championship.
“It worked for me last year, the way I played both weeks,” said Fowler of playing in the Scottish. “I feel it’s good prep for me and a lot of US guys feel the same, not everyone, but we’re aware of what Phil did.”
Jacquelin nearly added another chapter to the day by almost holing his second shot, but it spun away and he had to settle for a birdie, a tie for second with Kuchar and one of the three spots in the Open for the best finishers within the top 10.
54-hole leader Daniel Brooks finished with a three-over 73 but found his nine-under total was still good enough to take him to St Andrews, while Swede Rikard Karlberg’s back nine of 31 got him to eight-under and a place in the Open as the higher world ranked player over former PGA champion Y E Yang.
A fourth player, Scotland’s Richie Ramsay, is also headed for St Andrews as South African Tim Clark could not get a visa to enter the UK and has had to withdraw.
Ramsay had moved up to first reserve as the next player in the world rankings after Alex Noren withdrew earlier in the day allowing Japan’s Hiroshi Iwata his place in the Open field.