Thanks For Being One Of Us Ricky

     Thank you for being one of us, Ricky Fowler. You did more to grow the game of golf on Sunday at the final round of The Waste Management  Phoenix Open than many of us who are striving to bring golf to the masses. You showed you were human.  You showed some emotion and flair. Finally, you showed class and just what the character and nature of the game really is by your actions and demeanor after the playoff loss. Well done young man, you are a credit to the game and sports.
     You can't talk about the whole "Ricky" affair without saying a word about the stage that it was played on.  The Waste Management Phoenix Open is a tournament unlike any other the pros play.  It is in effect "The People's Tournament".  How about that sixteenth hole?  I would love to play in front of a gallery that size instead of one old man walking his two chihuahuas. The whole experience has to be a thrill. What is wrong with playing to the crowd. Fowler should have made birdie there, but you can't make them all. The fans were cheering and he still came out of there two strokes up. Many of these fans are here for the party and the fun. They are also there to be entertained, not just the action on a golf hole. This place is almost as famous as the island green at the Player's Championship, the 18th at Pebble or Amen Corner at Agusta and not for the golf played on this hole.
     What was going through his mind as he walked to the seventeenth hole?  Was it, "Let's play conservative and win this thing." Maybe it was, "Hey, I think I have this one in the bag, let's give these fans a show. I can drive and eagle this puppy."  That's only something  only he can answer truthfully.
     My honest opinion was that he was caught up in the moment.  Unlike Hideki Muriyama Ricky had a couple of wins under his belt and wanted to give the fans what they wanted--him to pull out his driver and drive the green. He wasn't going for the win but trying to please the crowd.  I think he would of played it differently if it were somewhere other than The Phoenix Open.
      He could have laid up with a three wood and in fact that was the safe play. The seventeenth is his nemesis hole and he has never played it well. The crowd didn't come to see him lay up and he knew that. He hit the drive very well, unfortunately too well and it rolled through the green and into the water in back. Oh well, that happens.  What's wrong with living life on the edge and putting some excitement into the game. The  fans loved it and I think forgave Ricky for losing in the playoff. The outcome would have been different and he would have not played the shot he did if it were a major.
     Have you ever made a stupid decision based on pressure from others or on vanity.  Sure you have and so have I. Have you said that you could hit that eight iron over the water only to come up a few yards short and put it in the hazard?  I know I have. So what is wrong with Ricky pulling out a driver and trying to drive the green? Thank you for being one of us Ricky.

I have played in a Pro-Am.  I drove it well here but plunked it in the water trying to fly a water hazard on my second shot.  You are OK in my book Ricky.  We all make those kind of mistakes.