Honda Classic 2017 results: Rickie Fowler picks up 1st win in 12 months

Has the elephant has finally left the room?

After blowing his last four 54-hole leads on Tour, Rickie Fowler warded off early trouble en route to a four-shot win at The Honda Classic at PGA National on Sunday in South Florida. Fowler’s former Oklahoma State teammate Morgan Hoffman and Gary Woodland tied for second.

But though the margin made it sound as if it was a quaint Sunday in Palm Beach Gardens, it didn’t look like it would be that easy early on.

Despite coming into the round with a four-shot lead, things got tight for Fowler right away on the outward nine Sunday. A splashdown on the sixth led to a double bogey and reduced his lead just to two. A wayward tee shot into the bunker on the par-3 seventh just after easily could’ve sent him down a familiar path, but saves and scrambles like this were the story of Sunday (and of the week) for Fowler.

That wouldn’t be the end of the adversity for what could’ve been an easy Rickie’s Sunday lead, eventually narrowed all the way to one around the turn to the back nine, with the long-hitting Woodland showing up in Fowler’s rearview mirror. But the former top-five player responded with one of his biggest moments of the day, dropping this 48-foot birdie bomb on the par-4 12th to regain a two-shot lead.

Another long birdie at the following 13th stretched his lead out to three, giving Fowler the necessary cushion heading into the course’s famed “Bear Trap, and allowing him to coast to his fourth career PGA Tour victory.

Here’s three takeaways from Rickie’s win.

It’s hard to know exactly what to make of Rickie Fowler’s career at times. He’s perhaps the game’s most marketable star, immensely likable, and one of the game’s biggest talents — spending most of last season within the Top 6 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

Then you know, there’s the actual results. Only career 3 PGA Tour wins, none since 2015. No major championships. The inability to close tournaments. He’s called overrated, the results don’t match the hype, so on, so forth.

Most of that’s garbage, but there’s probably something to the critiques when a player’s struggled on Sundays as much as Fowler has recently. Whether it’s too much desire, a lack of comfortability in sleeping on a lead, different players respond differently to success -- some just never become super comfortable out front. If Rickie is to meet his potential, that comfortability has to eventually come at some point.

Sunday may not have been a flawless round for Ol’ Rick, but getting this one in the house without carnage might go a long way if he’s in contention come April at Augusta.

Golf’s just dang fine without Tiger Woods. Sure, sure -- he’s still absolutely the biggest draw in the game. But the way golf’s new young stars are shining, he’s more of an extra value add to the Tour rather than something that’s absolutely necessary.

Consider the roster of winners so far this season on the PGA or European Tours to start 2017: Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm. That’s plenty of star power to deliver one heck of a show at Augusta in just over a month.

With 49 of the world’s top 50 players set to tee it up, the golf world will be set for a show south of the border next week when so many top players are in form. The WGC-Mexico Championship will debut in Mexico City next week, replacing the long-held event at Donald Trump’s Doral in Miami. You can bet Rickie will be among the favorites when the betting lines come out early next week.