The Green Mile at Quail Hollow Club has a reputation for breaking players on Sunday, and the 2026 Tour Championship was no exception. The brutal closing stretch proved costly for six-time PGA Tour winner Rickie Fowler, who let his final-round lead slip away after missing a six-foot birdie putt on 16 and hitting a wayward approach on 18. Golf fans erupted after Fowler was asked about the costly mistakes during his press conference, but his response was direct.

“Yeah… I felt like I was going to get a little bit of help there. It’s obviously pretty easy to go back — yeah, I would like to go hit 6-iron there, but it is what it is. I hit a lot of those right out of the middle of the face, just, yeah, not always, don’t always guess right.”

Rickie Fowler entered the Green Mile at 14-under as the solo leader, with Kristoffer Reitan, Sungjae Im, and Nicolai Højgaard all one shot behind. But he could not close it out. A missed six-foot birdie putt on the 16th was followed by a poor approach on the 18th that left him with no realistic chance to save par. Fowler bogeyed the final hole, dropped into a tie for second with Højgaard at 13-under, and earned $1.76 million.

Reitan, who entered the week as the final qualifier through the Aon Swing 5, finished at 15-under to win by two shots and claim the $3.6 million winner’s check, the first PGA Tour victory of his career in just his 15th start.

It also added to a familiar storyline for Fowler. At the 2022 Zozo Championship, he entered the final round with a one-shot lead before finishing one stroke behind Keegan Bradley. Before that, Fowler endured a four-year winless stretch on tour. Sunday at Quail Hollow looked like another chance to end the narrative, but the closing holes once again slipped away from him.

Golf Fans Call Fowler a “Choke Artist” After Costly Sunday

“His legacy will be remembered as a choker,” one fan wrote.

It is a label that has followed Fowler across his career. He has held or shared the final-round lead at major championships before — most notably at the 2014 US Open, The Open, and PGA Championship, finishing runner-up or in the top five all three times — without winning any of them. His last PGA Tour win came at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, ending a four-year drought. Sunday marked his best chance since.

“Watching Cam Young and Rickie Fowler blow Sunday leads to a Norwegian guy,” another fan posted.

Young, also in contention through the back nine, finished tied for 10th. But the sharper reaction landed on Fowler. He had the clearest path, sole leader entering the toughest closing stretch on the course, and could not hold it.

“Also missed a 5-foot birdie putt on 16. Choke artist,” a third fan wrote. Fowler’s 2026 season had shown genuine signs of a return to form. He made eight cuts in ten starts and posted three top-10 finishes heading into Charlotte.

The Truist was supposed to be the confirmation. Instead, it added another entry to a pattern fans have watched for years — Fowler in contention, Fowler faltering when it counts