11 years of closely covering the professional golfers come with their own perks. The biggest of them all? Having an opinionated prediction that just might come true. And while there’s not the best past between the two, Amanda Balionis just gave a wishful shoutout to Rickie Fowler, and it makes sense.

At Quail Hollow last week, the Californian nearly ended his three-year winless streak before Kristoffer Reitan took the huge win at the 2026 Truist Championship. However, Fowler’s runner-up finish with the PGA Championship right around the corner has given everyone a new hope, including Balionis.

“I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of @rickiefowler on the leaderboards this summer 👀,” Balionis wrote on her Instagram story with a behind-the-scenes photo of her interviewing Fowler.

While Balionis has always been the professional CBS reporter who always manages to strike the emotional cord of the golfers, almost a year ago was caught in an unwanted limbo. At the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge, where Fowler was unable to perform all that well, she brought up some stats that didn’t sit well with many golf fans.

Interestingly, Balionis didn’t do anything she doesn’t do with everyone. To prove just that, she now put the spotlight right on Fowler, and deservedly so!

After the opening round, a sinus infection and fever-riddled Fowler found himself 11 shots off the lead. But after watching his friend, Ken Roczen, win his first Supercross Championship on Saturday, a victory nearly a decade after a career-threatening arm injury, something changed for Fowler, too.

He was seven shots back entering Sunday, but shot 65 after a closing bogey, leaving him two strokes behind the champion. Fowler finished at 13-under 271 (74-63-69-65), but his score of 16-under 197 over the final three rounds at Quail Hollow was the best in the field by six shots.

“A lot of really good stuff this week, especially with being a little under the weather and kind of starting a little behind,” Fowler said.

It was the third consecutive top-10 finish for Fowler, who now finds himself 17th in the FedExCup standings after years of struggles.

In 2024, he had just one top-10 finish and three in 2025. We’re only five and a half months into 2026, and he already has four top-10s in the bag. In fact, he has finished inside the top-10 in the last three events he has played.

All of his top-of-the-table finishes in 2026 have been in signature events in the toughest fields. When he finished the final round at Quail Hollow, his family also came out running to hug him as if he had just captured the largest paycheck from the $20 million purse. His T2 finish last week was his best result since the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.

As impressive as his performance was last week, not everyone saw hope in Fowler’s future. In fact, the internet categorized it as another one of his blunders.

Rickie Fowler’s efforts didn’t impress everyone

Playing in the Cadillac Championship, Fowler was about to make a huge mistake by getting himself penalized in the final round, and that would have pushed him out of a comfortable top-10 finish.

He was stuck in the 17th hole’s rough and thought he sliced the ball while he was trying to set up the shot. He called the official and discussed the issue with them. If it weren’t for Jordan Spieth‘s caddie, Michael Greller, who pointed out that Fowler didn’t touch the ball, then he would have lost a stroke.

Another near miss was the outfit that he wore on the same day. Dressed in bright yellow from top to bottom, Fowler didn’t look like he was out playing a PGA Tour event. Fortunately, the fans could reminisce about his old avatars and encouraged him to perform well in his favorite color.

However, his runner-up finish in the Truist Championship received the worst reaction. Fowler finished two strokes behind Kristoffer Reitan after the Norwegian pro’s thrilling performance. Despite scoring 6-under 65 on Championship Sunday, the netizens still called him a ‘choke artist.’ But as long as the trajectory is moving upwards, Balionis’ prediction just might come true!