While Rickie Fowler’s road to victory at The Honda Classic was dotted with several self-created potholes, the American kept a cool head to drive away with an eventual four–shot win. Fowler entered the final round of the first stop on the Florida portion of the PGA Tour sitting pretty as he owned a four-shot lead. He even made things more comfortable for himself when he made birdie at hole No. 3. However, he began his final round roller-coaster ride that had his fans gnawing at their fingernails on No. 4 when he recorded a bogey and things went from bad to worse at No.
6 when he posted a double bogey. Fowler’s lead had even melted away to one shot along the way before it looked as though he’d got himself squared away with a birdie at No. 8. But wait a minute, he backed up that good hole with another bogey at No. 9 that sparked much hair-pulling in the gallery and in the NBC press box.
Stretched lead to five strokes
The California native didn’t fold though as he put together a string of birdies at holes 12, 13 and 16 to stretch his lead to five strokes over Gary Woodland of the U.S. Fowler went into cruise control down the stretch and even though his tee-shot went for a dip at No. 17 and he bogeyed No. 18 he put up a final total of 12-under 268 to win by four shots over the big-hitting Woodland and fellow American Morgan Hoffman.
It is Fowler’s first win since he won the Abu Dhabi Championship on the European Tour in early 2016. Fowler now sits 10th in the FedExCup standings and ninth in the world golf rankings.
Second win in three years
On the LPGA Tour, Amy Yang of South Korea won the Honda LPGA Thailand by five shots over So Yeon Ryu of South Korea.
The victory is Yang’s second at the event in the last three years. Third-place went to Sei Young Kim, also from South Korea, who finished seven strokes back. Yang’s 22-under 266 tally set a new tournament record in Chonburi, Thailand. Lexi Thompson of the U.S., In Gee Chun of South Korea, and Danielle Kang of the U.S. were all T4 at 13-under 275, as play was suspended by heavy rain during the second round.
