When Rickie Fowler is in the field, he is usually among the most popular people. This usually works in his favor as it helps him get sponsor invitations. However, an incident at the $9.2 million American Express event showed that it could also put him in the spotlight for something he wouldn’t like. While he didn’t make any remarks, analyst Brendan Porath called out what the PGA Tour did.

“PGA Tour Live just absolutely, and Josh Carpenter brought this, bodybagged Rickie Fowler. I’m here to stand up for Rickie, little Rickie. They posted a graphic of Sepp Straka and Rickie Fowler vs. the height of that Death Valley bunker or whatever it is on 16. There’s no further context needed other than a human. Like, there’s six inches, five inches, differentiating Rickie and Sepp. Why is Ricky needed there? Either it’s just Rickie, or it’s Sepp,” Porath said on the Fried Egg Golf podcast.

The PGA Tour Live posted the graphic to show the depth of the ‘Monster’ bunker at La Quinta. It is a huge 18-foot bunker on the par-5 16th hole at PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course. To give viewers a comparison of sorts, the PGA Tour added Sepp Straka and Rickie Fowler to the graphic. They are both playing at the 2026 American Express hosted at La Quinta. So the PGA Tour might have thought that it would be relevant.

Straka is 6’3″ tall, while Fowler stands at 5’9″. But as Brendan Porath pointed out, there was no need to compare. Even if the PGA Tour wanted to use the 6x PGA Tour winner in the graphic for his popularity, he alone would have sufficed. There was no need to add Sepp Straka’s graphic, too. Porath, therefore, called out the tour for “bodybagging” the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic champion.

While Porath voiced his concern about the lack of a comparison requirement, Andy Johnson chimed in with a solution if the PGA Tour wanted to implement one.

“Also, there are shorter golfers than Rickie. This is the thing that is befuddling me is Brian Harman’s in the field, who’s actually won a major championship. And he’s like 5’7″, 5’6″ if you wanted to do this graphic, and also Christo Lamprecht in the field. You could have done Christo and Brian Harman. That just doesn’t make any sense to me,” Johnson added.

Harman is a 4x PGA Tour winner. His resume includes the Open Championship 2023 win, where he carded rounds of 67-65-69-70 to finish 13 under par. Rickie Fowler, on the other hand, has 6 PGA Tour wins, but no major. So if the PGA Tour was looking for popularity, Brian Harman would have worked, and he is even shorter than Fowler, standing at 5’7″. And they could have compared him with Christo Lamprecht, who is 6’8″.

Kevin Van Valkenburg, who was the third analyst in the video, then shared his views on why the PGA Tour would have used Rickie Fowler’s image for the graphic.

“The thirst trap for Rickie’s people, I think. Either to engage Rickie’s people in anger or get them to share that they’re on their own. The Rickie fan club,” Van Valkenburg said.

Rickie Fowler has a huge fan base, probably one of the biggest among the golfers in the field at the American Express. Therefore, the PGA Tour might have used his image to engage with the fans and make it more interesting.

Rickie Fowler is also part of Tiger Woods’ TGL. He is part of the New York Golf Club, which played its second match of the season against Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links Golf Club, where the 15-time major champion was also present.

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Rickie Fowler on his bond with Tiger Woods

Woods, recovering from his seventh back surgery in October 2025, attended the SoFi Center on January 13, 2026. While he didn’t participate in the match, the legend shared a positive health update. He said that he is now permitted to play the irons. However, he was not yet ready for full play. In fact, he even hit a few strokes before the match started.

Before the match started, Tiger Woods gave a strong hug to Rickie Fowler. When asked about it after the match, the 6x PGA Tour winner said that the two are “good buddies.” He also noted that the 82x PGA Tour winner’s presence would boost their match’s viewership and ratings.

Although Woods was there to cheer for his team, Jupiter Links Golf Club, they lost against the New York Golf Club. Fowler’s team, which also included Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, and Cameron Young, won with a score of 8-3.

Fowler is one of the most renowned golfers and is even friends with the Big Cat. Yet, it didn’t save him from the dark side of popularity that got him included in the graphic featuring Sepp Straka and the ‘Monster’ bunker.