Rickie Fowler holds on for win at Honda Classic
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Just when it seemed Rickie Fowler was going to lose another final-round lead Sunday at the Honda Classic, he made a long birdie putt.
Then another. And another.
Covering a combined 91 feet of Bermuda greens on those three putts, Fowler turned a tense one-shot lead into a four-shot victory on a more difficult Champion Course at PGA National Resort & Spa.
Fowler’s up-and-down, 1-over 71 enabled one of the game’s most popular players to claim his first PGA Tour victory in 17 months and his first anywhere since Abu Dhabi a year ago in January.
Morgan Hoffmann (68) and Gary Woodland (69) tied for second place.
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“My putter saved me,” said Fowler, who lives 10 miles from PGA National in Jupiter. “Those putts on 8, 12 and 13 … if I don’t make those, I’ve got a pretty tight race.”
It marked the first time in five tries that Fowler converted a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour. Fowler still hasn’t broken par in those situations, thanks to bogeys on the last two holes, but that mattered little as he earned his fourth win in 179 starts on tour.
“It’s nice to get the goose egg off that statistic,” Fowler said. “It was tough out there. I saw Gary was making a late run and I just had to hold on.
“I would have liked to have had a cleaner card today and played a little bit better. But I got the job done.”
Fowler started the week ranked 14th in the world, but the victory moved him back into the top 10 in the world rankings, likely ninth.
Fowler started the day with a four-shot lead and saw it go to five when England’s Tyrell Hatton bogeyed the first hole. But Fowler bogeyed the fourth and double-bogeyed the sixth after a wet tee shot, cutting his advantage to two shots.
Fowler rolled in a 30-footer birdie at No. 8, but gave that shot back with a bogey at the ninth. After Woodland pulled within one with a couple birdies early on the back nine, Fowler made a 38-footer at No. 12 and a 23-footer at No. 13 to extend his lead to three shots.
The 28-year-old Fowler added a birdie at the 16th before one-putting for bogey at the 17th when his tee shot rolled into the water. With his challengers also struggling down the stretch, Fowler played the par-5 closing hole conservatively and closed with a bogey to finish at 12-under 268.
Fowler’s iron play cooled off on the weekend. But his putter got red-hot as he rolled in 134 feet of putts in the final round after averaging 80.3 feet in the first three rounds.
“He made every putt that mattered this week, and that was the difference,” Fowler’s caddie, Joe Skovron said.
Woodland bogeyed the last two holes to drop into a second-place tie with Hoffman, another Jupiter resident who had his career best finish on the PGA Tour.
“Just didn’t get the putts to come in down the stretch,” Woodland said. “But, obviously, Rickie played some great golf.”
Jhonattan Vegas shot the day’s best round, a 6-under 64, thanks to a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th hole, and finished tied for fourth with Billy Horschel (68), Chad Collins (69), Wesley Bryan (70), Martin Kaymer (70) and Hatton (72).
Fowler will play in Seminole Golf Club’s Pro-Member on Monday before leaving for Mexico City and next week’s World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.
At least he added another trophy to his “small collection,” as he joked with reporters after the third round.
“This is something we needed going into Augusta,” Fowler said. “There’s less pressure, less stress. I like the spot where we’re at right now.”
Craig Dolch writes for TCPalm.com/Treasure Coast Newspapers, part of the USA TODAY Network.