Photo Courtesy: First Minister of Scotland
By Jay Betsill
Rickie Fowler fired a 4-under 67 on the Deutsche Bank Championship‘s annual Labor Day Monday finish to best Henrik Stenson by one shot and win the second leg of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.
”It’s pretty special to fight it out like that,” said Fowler, who trailed Stenson by as many as three shots, but took the lead when Stenson double bogeyed the par-3 No. 16 at TPC Boston.
The win was Fowler’s third of the season to go along with the PGA Tour’s marquee event The PLAYERS Championship and the European Tour’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, played the week prior to The Open Championship. This win moves Fowler to No. 5 in the golf rankings.
“With the three guys that they talk about, Jason, Rory and Jordan, they’ve clearly played the best out of anyone over the past few months to couple of years,” Fowler said. “So I’m trying to be a small fourth thrown in there. But there are a lot of other really good young players playing well right now, as well.”
Spieth and Day each have four wins and together hold three of the four major titles while McIlroy and Fowler now have three worldwide wins this year. Day finished in a tie for 12th at 6-under, Rory McIlroy was tied for 29th at 3-under and Jordan Spieth missed his second consecutive cut.
Stenson now has finished runner-up in both FedEx Cup playoff events after finishing six shots behind Jason Day last week at The Barclays. He is now fourth in the FedEx Cup standings, trailing Day, Spieth and Fowler and just ahead of Bubba Watson.
For the complete leaderboard from the Deutsche Bank Championship, visit pgatour.com
The PGA Tour and the FedEx Cup Playoffs will take this weekend off before returning Sept. 17-20 for the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, IL.
