It’s easy to forget, when you see Rickie Fowler in his bright Sunday orange, that before all the fame, he was just a college kid with a hell of a swing and a big decision to make.

Back in 2009, Fowler had already built a stellar resume and won just about everything he could win, from the Western Junior in 2005 to the 2007 Fighting Illini Invitational and the Players Amateur. Next up in the list was the PGA Tour. Any other young player in his shoes would’ve turned pro in a heartbeat. But Fowler didn’t.

Recalling the 2009 Walker Cup, Buddy Marucci has only praises for the American. “Can’t say enough about Rickie Fowler…I’ve known him since he was 14, but, you know, he could have turned easily (pro) before the second match.”

If you don’t follow amateur golf closely, the Walker Cup is a biennial event where the best male amateurs from the US face off against those from Great Britain and Ireland. It’s like the Ryder Cup, but for amateurs. Rickie Fowler had already played exceptionally well in the 2007 edition. So when Marucci — who was the captain in 2007 as well — was asked to lead the team again in 2009, he immediately thought of Fowler.

Marucci didn’t want to pressure Fowler. He knew the kid had every reason to move on. So he pulled him aside that summer and told him not to wait around for them. But Fowler wasn’t tempted.

“He said, ‘Buddy, I told you if you got the captaincy again, I’d wait.’ I said, ‘Ricky, you don’t have to you don’t have to do that for me.’ He said, ‘I’ll be there. If you if you pick me, I’ll be there,'” revealed Marucci in an episode of The Golfer’s Journal.

When the Walker Cup rolled around that September at Merion Golf Club, Fowler was there. He played four matches across the weekend, contributing four crucial points to Team USA (securing a 16½–9½). In the end, Team USA won comfortably. “The whole reason I waited around [to turn pro] was for this weekend… to go 4-0 and get the Cup back, it can’t get any better,” said the then 20-year-old after clinching his single match to secure a perfect 4-0 record.

“He was fantastic. He was so loyal. His playing career is up and down a little bit as far as execution, but as a businessman and as a person, he’s at the head of the class,” added Marucci in the episode.

Rickie turned pro right after that, in September 2009, debuting at the Albertsons Boise Open. But that choice —putting everything on hold, and not for some lucrative opportunity — says a lot about the kind of person he is. The flashy clothes and massive fanbase might steal the headlines, but underneath it all, he’s always played the long game. Although this season, the 36-year-old’s struggle to chase a dream is still ongoing.

Rickie Fowler’s ongoing Major drought

Rickie Fowler’s 2025 season has been another long and frustrating saga of major heartbreaks. He showed real promise at The Open with a brilliant final-round 65 to finish T14, but couldn’t break his Major drought. At the PGA Championship, he didn’t even make the cut after back-to-back 73s for +4 through two rounds. Worst of all was when he could not qualify for the Master’s (for the fourth time in 5 years) or the US Open  — two places where he’s come painfully close in the past. That kind of inconsistency has defined the latter part of his career.

“…It’s tough when you feel like you’ve worked hard and you just don’t see the results sometimes,” he said earlier this year, talking to ScoreGolf.

Fowler has now played 55 majors without a win. Three runner-up finishes, 14 top-10s, and still nothing to show for it. Just nine years ago, in 2014, he was everywhere — one of the few to go top-five in all four majors, joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only player to do so in the modern era. But every year since, that moment has chipped away. At 36, there is still time, maybe? For a re-birth. But for now, the drought continues.