Rickie Fowler's perseverance at Rocket Mortgage Classic makes him easy to root for

This wasn’t going to happen to Rickie Fowler for the second time in two weeks. Was it?

Surely the golf gods, cruel as they are to us mere mortal hackers, wouldn’t inflict such sadism on such a nice guy. Would they?

Well, it turns out the golf gods are definitely crazy, but their cruelty has a limit, because Rickie Fowler finally found redemption Sunday with his thrilling playoff victory over Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin at the Rocket Mortgage Classic for his first win in four years — or 1,610 days to be exact.

Maybe more poignantly, it came two weeks since Fowler’s high-profile, final-round flop at the U.S. Open that cost him a shot to win his first major.

Days, weeks, years? No one’s counting now. Especially after Fowler made improbable and dramatic back-to-back birdies to clinch his first victory since the 2019 Phoenix Open and helped author the most exciting finish at Detroit Golf Club in its five-year history.

“It's just nice to have this one out of the way,” he said afterward, in typical understated fashion. “I'm obviously going to soak this one in and celebrate a bit. Yeah, it's just been a long road.”

Long road? Odysseus almost got back to Greece in the time it took Fowler to win again. Because Fowler wasn’t really on a road at all. He was on a soul-searching journey. He switched caddies and reunited with his old swing coach, Butch Harmon, trying to find an answer.

THANKS FOR THE SUPORT: Orange wave: Ride or die Rickie Fowler fans flood Detroit Golf Club for his redemption win

At his lowest points, Fowler admitted Sunday, he wasn’t always convinced at age 34 that he would be the player he had been when he was No. 4 in the world, a regular winner on the PGA Tour and a member of several Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams.

“Not always,” he said. “You never really know with this game.

“You definitely learn to appreciate the good times and when you're playing well. Yeah, you hope the struggles don't last, but sometimes they last longer than you would hope for.”

Like any sportswriter, I don’t root for players or teams I cover. I root for a good story, and Fowler was going to be the story Sunday, win or lose.

But strangely, I felt myself rooting for him because I could empathize with him as a golfer. Whether you’re Tiger Woods or the worst player in your golf league, every golfer has a round where things start to go sideways.

That was Fowler on Sunday. He started with a one-shot lead, then went 10 holes without a birdie down the stretch on his way to a four-under 68 to get into the playoff at 24-under 264.

Meanwhile, Morikawa was spitting fire and making everything two groups ahead. The two-time major champ shot 32 on each nine.

Hadwin and fellow Canadian Taylor Pendrith played in Fowler’s final group as a threesome in order to expedite play because of a poor weather forecast. Hadwin steadily stalked Fowler, shot 67 and briefly passed him on the leaderboard.

In a strange coincidence, the two Canadians dressed almost identically in navy pants, navy shirts and white hats. A stark contrast to Fowler’s neon-orange shirt that gave the pairing a kind of Agent Smith versus Neo vibe.

And just like “The Matrix,” everyone seemed to be rooting for the chosen one, even if he often looked outmatched. Even the wet conditions couldn’t dampen the spirits of diehard Detroiters who put up with an early Sunday start and soldiered through a rain delay to cheer on Fowler, their adopted favorite.

“I feel like we've seen this tournament continue to grow and grow and more fans come out every year,” Fowler said. “To feel the support this year, I feel like it helps that I've been playing well and have more people in my corner. So it seemed like it just kind of got bigger and bigger every day, especially today.”

Fowler needed the help. His 4-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole didn’t sniff the cup. He blew a chance to make up ground on his final par-5, the 17th, when he hit a 34-yard pitch shot 23 feet short of the hole and settled for par, one stroke shy of joining Morikawa in a playoff.

On the 18th hole, Fowler’s drive found the intermediate rough. When he stuck his approach to 3 feet, fans roared, and roared again when he made it to qualify for the playoff, which began on the 18th.

For a moment, that birdie looked like it was going to be an anomaly after Fowler sliced his drive into the right rough. He got relief from casual water, but still faced a 184-yard shot from the rough to the tricky, multitiered green.

The situation wasn’t great, but Fowler’s disposition was. He joked with his caddie that at least the angle was good. He slashed a 7-iron and left himself an 11-foot, 10-inch putt for birdie. Morikawa flew the green and was in the rough. Hadwin’s approach left him a 22-footer.

Both missed their birdie attempts, clearing the way for Fowler.

I asked Fowler if it was more gratifying to win this way, in such dramatic fashion. He said he would have preferred to win in regulation by converting more chances, but his smile as he recounted his extraordinary finish told the truth about an undeniably thrilling finish.

“At the end of the day,” he said, “take it any way I can get it. But to hit some of those shots and ultimately make a couple putts when I really needed to, yeah, definitely feels good.”

When Fowler sank that final 12-footer, he conjured an ovation that thundered through course. A little while later, as Fowler spoke of his struggles and his success, the rain suddenly came down fast and hard at Detroit Golf Club. Because sometimes even the golf gods have a soft spot.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Rickie Fowler's easy to root for after Rocket Mortgage Classic win