What an emphatic performance by Rickie Fowler at Quail Hollow last week. He nearly ended his three-year winless streak at the 2026 Truist Championship. Yeah, Kristoffer Reitan deserves all the credit for his huge win, but with the PGA Championship right around the corner, Fowler’s runner-up finish has given hope to many in the golf community, including Amanda Balionis.

The CBS Sports reporter shared a story on Instagram of her interviewing Fowler with a caption, “I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of @rickiefowler on the leaderboards this summer 👀.”

Fowler has struggled a lot in the last couple of years. 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.

Speaking of the dynamic between Balionis and Fowler, the two were involved in an interesting controversy last year. After Balionis interviewed Fowler at the Charles Schwab Challenge, she faced a lot of criticism online for her intent. Fans pointed out how she only brought up Fowler’s negative stats and performances to stir things up. They even called for Balionis to get fired by the network. In the end, she confronted the netizens in her story.

Coming back to the present, 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 satisfy his fans

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.’