Rickie Fowler reveals how U.S. Open collapse helped lead to Rocket Mortgage Classic euphoria

Fowler had to search from within after U.S. Open debacle, but it paid off as he won his 6th PGA Tour event at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Rickie Fowler has ended his four-year-long drought. He has gotten close the last few weeks but didn’t get over the hump until this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

“You definitely learn to appreciate the good times and when you’re playing well,” Fowler said to the media after his win. “Yeah, you hope the struggles don’t last, but sometimes they last longer than you would hope for.”

In his last four starts, Fowler finished T13 at the Travelers, T5 at the U.S. Open, T9 at the Memorial and T6 at the Charles Schwab Challenge. This win was something coming his way.

He led the U.S. Open for three days, but Fowler imploded Sunday. Fowler struggled to make putts and made costly bogeys throughout the day that took him out of it.

“The last two weekends definitely helped going into today. Just know that I didn’t have to be perfect, just had to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Fowler said. “Like I said, I felt like we did a really good job of it other than not really converting a few opportunities there on the back nine.”

Fowler had been so close. He knew that it would come for him, and it finally did in Detroit. Fowler led the field with 28 birdies. He was No. 2 in strokes gained approach to the green and T1 for strokes gained total.

Fowler had to birdie the 18th to force a 3-man playoff with Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin. He then birdied 18 again in the playoff to capture the victory.

“I knew it wasn’t far off and just kind of had to keep putting the time in, keep grinding, keep pushing,” Fowler said.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and on Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.