Rickie Fowler missed another chance to claim the Waste Management Phoenix Open after struggling to convert his chances on the greens at TPC Scottsdale.
Three consecutive birdies to close his third round helped Fowler into the overnight lead, but he was quickly in a mad scramble at the top of the leaderboard with Chez Reavie and then Gary Woodland moving into the mix.
Fowler made the turn in one under with some good recoveries in the middle of his front nine, but then failed to take his best chances as he looked to close the gap between himself and Reavie.
After last year’s playoff loss to Hideki Matsuyama, Fowler produced a wonderful iron into the 10th green to give himself a putt to draw level with Reavie and Woodland, who was tearing up the course ahead of him.
The putt started on the correct line but drifted sharply past the left edge, leaving Fowler with work to do and holes running out.
As the rest of his game started to fail him, Fowler finished in the opposite fashion to Saturday with three consecutive drops as Reavie did enough to force Woodland into a playoff, which the latter won at the first hole.
‘I just couldn’t buy a putt,’ Fowler said after his 73, which saw him finish outside the top 10.
‘That’s one of the best clubs in my bag. I felt like I hit a lot of good putts, so it was a little disappointing not to see really anything go in on the back nine.
‘I think that was kind of the biggest letdown. That’s typically a club I can lean on. I know I’m a good putter, I putted well all week. And, yeah, we just – kept hitting good putts and either they were misreads or they were doing something funky, but maybe the hole was moving, they just didn’t want to go in.’
Fowler will remain seventh in the official world rankings.
Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
