Swanson: Rickie Fowler offers up a fine Father’s Day gift — a reason to sweat

LOS ANGELES – For the first time in a long time Rod Fowler was nervous. He got to experience some anxiety these past few days at the U.S. Open, he said, as he watched his son hold the lead for most of the first three rounds before losing his grip Sunday, carding 5-over par 75 to slip into a tie for fifth.

Those butterflies felt good, I bet. Like a most excellent Father’s Day gift from Rickie Fowler to his dad.

Rickie wasn’t able to gift wrap his first major championship to commemorate the holiday, but he did deliver some history. He went as low as anyone in the history of the U.S. Open with Thursday’s first-round 8-under-par 62, and his 130 total in the first two days equaled Martin Kaymer’s record at the 2014 U.S. Open.

Another nice touch? He finished the tournament with a record 23 birdies, more than anyone in U.S. Open history.

But a rash of bogeys – 18 of them in all – came back to bite in a tournament that went to his pal Wyndham Clark, who shot even par Sunday to finish 10 under for the tournament, one stroke better than Rory McIlroy.

Though not a victory for Rickie – it would’ve been his first in four years and his first ever in a major – all those achievements along the way made for a pretty thoughtful Dad’s Day haul, don’t you think?

Because, boy, did Rod’s boy get the juices flowing again, get the adrenaline was pumping so much that, during walks around Los Angeles Country Club’s roiling, hilly North Course, Rod almost didn’t notice the plantar fasciitis that’s been plaguing him.

It was a invigorating tournament in a reinvigorating season for Rickie and family, a tight-knit and supportive crew from Murrieta who’ve always believed in him — before his three-plus year drought and during it, too.

And now that he’s coming out of a stretch that saw him plummet in the World Golf Rankings (No. 4 to No. 185) and tumble so far in the FedEx Cup standings (to 134th) that he was saved from losing his fully exempt status on the PGA Tour on the strength of his 2015 Players Championship?

Now that he’s back working with famed instructor Butch Harmon, a truth-telling master motivator who’s certain a Rickie victory is nigh?

Now that Rickie is getting the hang of the ropes as a new dad, appreciating very much that his 1 ½-year-old daughter Maya couldn’t care less “if I shoot 65 or 85?”

And now that he’s proved, on one of the biggest stages in golf, that he belongs atop the top leaderboards?

Think the Fowlers believe?

Do people ride motorcycles in Murrieta?

“After everything he’s been through in the last three, four years, it’s pretty amazing, pretty cool,” said Rod before Rickie teed off in the final pairing Sunday, playing alongside eventual winner Wyndham Clark, a fellow former Oklahoma State Cowboy golfer.

“For him to be up with the best of the best and now we’re on top, that’s where he needs to be,” Rod said. “Like I told all my friends, ‘I just don’t feel like they’ve seen the best of him out here yet.’”

They didn’t see it Sunday, either. Fowler wore his best Sunday orange and made more history with his birdies on Nos. 8 and 14, but his Goldilocks putting – too soft, too hard – contributed to seven ill-timed bogeys.

Meanwhile, after having incorporated a replica of Rickie’s Odyssey Versa Jailbird putter early this year, Clark held it together to hold off a steady McIlroy.

“I told him obviously congrats and proud of him,” said Rickie Fowler, who paid tribute to Clark’s late mother, Lise Clark, who died of cancer in 2013. “And just said, ‘Your mom was with you. She’d be very proud.’ ”

Clark had raved about Rickie on Saturday night – but not about his playing partner’s rediscovered game. About his demeanor and willingness to help. By many accounts this week, those attributes have been unwavering, even as Fowler’s play dipped and skipped.

“One of the, if not the best Oklahoma State alum,” Clark said. “He talked to us multiple times when we were in college. Even when I came out here, he’s always sent me notes of good playing or even some tournaments he would tell me, ‘Hey, I think this is a better play to play off the tee.’ A class act.”

Austin Eckroat, another former Cowboy and current PGA Tour rookie, also talked gushed about Fowler: “Every week he puts in a good effort to talk to me. Having friends out here, especially when you’re young, and people you can look up to on Tour is pretty great, and that’s just the kind of guy he is.”

The PGA Tour being something of a Rickie Fowler Admiration Society, that’s another kind of win.

“It’s almost better than winning a tournament,” Rod said. “It’s just nice to know we did bring a good kid up.”

Fitting for Rod and his wife, Lynn, who’ve seemed always to believe in Rickie and his dreams, wanting to help facilitate them, and able to do it without trying to dictate his future. Even now: “Butch can talk to him, tell him, ‘Hey, you look like (crud),” Rod said. “We can’t do that. We always stayed positive.”

Sometimes, the results of that can be positively nerve-wracking.