Wells Fargo Championship 2012: Rickie Fowler Defeats McIlroy, Points in Playoff

Winning on the PGA Tour is the dream of every professional golfer. As with any career choice, achieving the pinnacle of one’s craft is often the main motivating force that keeps someone going week after week, year after year. For some success comes quickly; for others, success is but a pipe dream. The desire to reach success, however, remains constant.

Rickie Fowler’s first tour victory at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship -- in all intents and purposes -- came relatively early in his career. Sixty-seven events is not the longest drought a player has gone without a victory. Tiger Woods, one of the best golfers in the history of the game, has gone through longer winless streaks, for example. Of course, he also has over 70 wins on his resume as a professional to go along with numerous junior titles, amateur championships, and other trophies. Yet he’ll likely say his desire remains the same now as it was while learning the game.

Rickie Fowler’s first PGA Tour win may seem like a long time coming, but perhaps that’s because the 23-year-old has been maturing before our eyes since he exploded onto the golf scene three years ago in a profusion of orange and other neon hues.

Indeed, we may be tempted to say Fowler “finally” won his first U.S. event after he bested Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff at the Wells Fargo Championship on Sunday. But the popular young man with the backwards flat-billed cap who’s knocked on the door a couple of times would like to remind us that it hasn’t been that long a wait.

With the PGA schedule only one major through, the Tour’s money list is ever changing and volatile.

Today, following his first PGA Tour victory, 23-year old Rickie Fowler shot up the earnings list 45 positions, as he netted a cool $1.17 million for winning the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.

A busy and fluctuating leaderboard on the final day of the Wells Fargo Championship gave way to a three-player playoff, and finished with a young golfer earning his first professional victory on American soil.

After finishing 14 under-par through 72 holes, Rickie Fowler defeated Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points in just one hole of a sudden death playoff to cap off an excellent weekend of golf at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow.

The last groups are approaching the turn during the final round of the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship and, while top draw Tiger Woods sits at home, the Sunday leaderboard at Quail Hollow is loaded with young superstars, shaping up for an exciting back nine.

Webb Simpson, the rising American who’s been at the top of leaderboards on Tour for a year now, is one shot back of D.A. Points, who leads at 14-under par. Points won for the first time on Tour last year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, teaming up with fellow Illinois native Bill Murray for an impressive win. A win at Quail Hollow, one of the pros’ favorite and most respected stops on the circuit, would be a huge boost for his career.

Webb Simpson is closing in on a title in his hometown at a course where he’s a member, but he has some stiff competition. Rory McIlroy, D.A. Points, Rickie Fowler and Stewart Cink are among the golfers within striking distance of Simpson on the final day of the Wells Fargo Championship from Quail Hollow. Simpson had a good day on Saturday, shooting three-under par to get to 14-under, but McIlroy made up some ground with a six-under day that got him to within two shots of the lead.

Here are the tee times for Sunday’s final round.

Webb Simpson’s 3-under 69 was enough to propel him into the lead heading into the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Simpson is 14-under for the tournament holding a narrow lead over a crowded top of the leaderboard. Ryan Moore and D.A. Points are tied for second place at 13-under while second-round leader Nick Watney and Rory McIlroy are tied for fourth place at 12-under.

The final group has been set for the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte. Tiger Woods was unable to make the cut heading into Saturday’s third round, continuing his string of disappointing showings. There is still plenty of top-notch play remaining in the tournament and the early tee times for Saturday are already underway.

Nick Watney enters the day atop the leaderboard at 12-under, with Webb Simpson close behind at 11-under and a quartet of golfers knotted in third place at 10-under. None of these leaders has teed off for the day just yet.

Most of golf’s biggest names showed up for the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow and its large purse, but it’s not the game’s biggest stars currently making a splash. Tiger Woods missed the cut on Friday, while Phil Mickelson only made it by one stroke. The biggest name in contention is Rory McIlroy, and he’s six shots back of the lead.

Nick Watney is the current leader of the tournament at 12-under par. He goes off in Saturday’s final group with the world’s No. 14-ranked golfer Webb Simpson, a member of Quail Hollow. He’s 11-under through two rounds. Other highly-ranked golfers in contention include D.A. Points at 10-under, Rickie Fowler at six-under and Jason Day at four-under. Here are the tee times for Saturday.

An eight-under in the second round allowed Nick Watney to take sole possession of first place at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Watney, the 25th-ranked golfer in the world, started his round off strong with four birdies on the front nine. He cooled off a bit on the back, but an eagle on the par-five 15th allowed him to storm from 4-under to first place. Webb Simpson is only one back at 11-under, and a pack of Stewart Cink, Ben Crane, D.A. Points, and John Senden are two back at 10-under. Crane also shot an 8-under to catapult himself into the tie for second place.

Tiger Woods will head home early after failing to meet the 1-under cutline on Day 2 of the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship on Friday. Woods finished at 1-over on the day, and even-par for the tournament. It was his second straight missed cut at Quail Hollow Club.

Woods recorded three bogeys on the back nine to go with two birdies. Most telling were his struggles on par 5s. Woods shot 2-under on Quail Hollow’s four Par 5s on Thursday, and birdied 12 of 16 when he won at the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year. On Friday he didn’t birdie a single one, however, and may have had a bogey on No. 5 if not for a golf ball nabbing fan.

As Emily Kay noted earlier, Tiger Woods was gifted a free drop -- saving himself a penalty stroke -- after hooking his ball into the trees on the par-5 fifth at Quail Hollow. The story unfolded as such: Woods hooked his second shot over the gallery and into the trees, and the ball could not be found. Ordinarily, this would result in a penalty stroke for a lost ball.

Except Woods was given a free drop because the gallery convinced the rules officials that someone had picked up his ball and scurried off with it. The ball apparently landed in the pinestraw in a relatively clear area, making the story somewhat believable. And so Woods escaped without penalty and even had a clear approach to the green as a result.

It appears that a gift of a free drop from PGA Tour rules officials will not be enough to get Tiger Woods to the weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Woods, who shot a 1-over 73 on Friday -- thanks to a bizarre ruling on his back nine that saved him a stroke -- finished his second round at even-par, one shot short of the projected cut line. Should things play out as observers expect them to, it will be only the eighth MC of Woods’ career and the first time he has ever missed the cut twice at the same event. He failed to make it to Saturday play in 2010 in the event formerly called the Quail Hollow Championship.

With the projected cut currently at 1-under, Tiger Wood may be headed home early after shooting 1-over Friday at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship, putting him at even overall for the tournament. The day could have been even worse, but Woods earned a free drop off his hooked approach on hole No. 5 when a fan apparently pocketed his ball after it landed in a clearing. Woods would have earned a one-stroke penalty if the ball had gone missing. He eventually was able to save par.

Meanwhile at the top of the leaderboard, Nick Watney took over sole possession of first place at 12-under overall with a score of 8-under Friday. He tied Ben Crane with the lowest score on the day to break through the three-way tie for the lead among Stewart Cink, Ryan Moore and Webb Simpson entering Day 2. Simpson is in second place after shooting 4-under to finish at 11-under overall. Crane and Cink are tied at 10-under and Moore is in fifth place at 9-under.

You know how, if you’re at a major league baseball game and someone hits a foul ball into the stands you get to keep the precious cowhide? Thing is, it doesn’t work that way in golf, but that apparently didn’t stop a phantom golf fan from squirreling away a white, dimpled Nike One Tour D that Tiger Woods hit into the jungle on his approach to the fifth green at Quail Hollow Club on Friday.

The result: Woods got to take a free drop instead of the one-stroke penalty a lost golf ball would have cost him, according to Rule 27.1 of the Rules of Golf.

The story was Tiger Woods taking the course, but after the first round, he’s well back of the lead at -1, tied for 56th. Ryan Moore, Stewart Cink, and Webb Simpson hold the lead at -7.

Here’s pairings and tee times for today’s second round:

There’s a three-way tie atop the leaderboard after the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship. Americans Stewart Cink, Ryan Moore, and Webb Simpson shot opening rounds of 65 and share the lead at 7-under. Simpson, playing alongside Tiger Woods, was on fire with the putter early, draining several putts from thirty-plus feet and going out in 31 on Quail Hollow’s front nine. Cink, who’s struggled on Tour the past two seasons, also went out in 31 and made the turn with three straight birdies on Nos. 7 through 9. Cink finished his bogey-free round with seven birdies, while co-leader Ryan Moore birdied half the holes he played. The young superstar out of Nevada has yet reach his full potential on Tour but a win in Charlotte could propel him to a dominant summer.

Quail Hollow always produces one of the best fields of the season, and the big names are there again this week. Tiger Woods, however, struggled to get out of the gate on Thursday and finished six shots off the lead at 1-under. Woods had an ugly front nine, bogeying three holes before getting it back on the second nine to finish under par. The other top name in golf, Rory McIlroy, finished his round one better than Woods with a 2-under 70. McIlroy missed the cut at the Wells Fargo last year, just one season after capturing his first Tour win at Quail Hollow. With the course yielding lower than usual rounds, both he and Woods are still well within striking distance.

Playing in his first tournament since The Masters, Tiger Woods is having another middling round at the Wells Fargo Championship, but he’s trying to salvage things on the back nine at Quail Hollow. Woods stumbled right out of the gate, bogeying the first hole at the tough Charlotte track. He had three bogeys and two birdies to go out in 37, but he’s working to make a charge over the final nine to get into the red and move up the leaderboard. Woods birdied No. 13 and No. 15 to move to 1-under.

Woods’s playing partner, Webb Simpson, co-leads with Stewart Cink and Ryan Moore at 7-under. Simpson lit it up on the front nine with a 31, which included an eagle on the par-4 eighth hole after sinking a wedge from 36 yards out. He continued his hot round on the back nine, and did not bogey a hole until he missed a putt on No. 16 to drop a shot and come back to Moore and Cink, who are both in the clubhouse. Simpson is one of the rising stars on tour, and a local, who will figure to be in the hunt throughout the weekend.

Ever since he laid up from 230 yards on the par-5 15th in the final round of the 2010 Phoenix Open, the “When Will Rickie Fowler Win?” watch has been on. With an opening-round 6-under 66 and a share of the clubhouse lead on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Championship, could this finally be the week the popular, neon-clad youngster with flowing tresses notches his first “W” on the PGA Tour?

The confident 23-year-old, who finished second in Phoenix two years ago after playing it safe and taking heat from some observers for not going for it, believes it could be.

It’s been just about a month since we last saw Tiger Woods, who followed up a win at Bay Hill with a dismal effort at The Masters, the first major of the year. Woods looked to have momentum heading to Augusta, finally reaching the winner’s circle in an official event in his last event before the major. It quickly came crashing down as Woods struggled to control his swing, eventually losing his cool as his frustrations boiled over. Instead of answering doubts about his game, he left more questions.

Woods has since disappeared -- back to the drawing board, to the range and to figure out what went wrong. Problems that have plagued him throughout his career -- specifically with the driver -- were magnified at The Masters, and appeared as bad as ever. He took a step back in an ongoing process to retool his swing.

Tiger Woods will be back in action Thursday for the first time since his meltdown at The Masters, looking for something positive as he faces another strong field. Many of the world’s best players will hit the course at the Wells Fargo Championship, set to take place at Quail Hollow in North Carolina.

Coverage of Thursday’s first round begins at 3 p.m. ET on the Golf Channel. The broadcast is set to run until 7 p.m., with the final groups finishing up right around then.

With the first half of the PGA Tour finished, the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship will mark a fresh start for those golfers looking to step up their games as the summer months begin. One of those golfers will be defending Wells Fargo Championship winner Lucas Glover. He has gotten off to a slow start following five starts this season, recently making the cut in his last two events. Before that, Glover shot a 10-over at the 2012 Masters and missed the cut.

Glover had his best tournament in last weekend’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, finishing 3-under in a tournament that Jason Dufner won at 19-under. Glover will play with Lee Westwood and Kyle Stanley for the first two rounds.