Every golfer searches for a way to stay calm under pressure, but Rickie Fowler just gave the most brutally honest answer: you don’t. The response came when a young fan asked him the one question every golfer wrestles with.

In a mic’d-up segment from Chasing Sunday: Unheard, a fan asked Fowler the question every amateur golfer wants answered: “How do you stay calm?” Fowler responded quickly, “We don’t.” When the same fan followed up asking for tips to improve, Fowler kept that same energy: “Have fun and try to beat your friends.”

These pieces of advice are not coming out of the blue. Rickie Fowler actually lives by it. At the 2015 Players Championship, he birdied 17 and 18 to force and win a playoff against Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia. His reaction throughout was smiles, fist pumps, and visible enjoyment of the fight, not someone grinding through pressure but someone feeding off it.

83% of our readers couldn't break par yesterday

Changing winds, tricky bunkers, and quirky breaks test every shot. Beat par, compare scores, and return tomorrow for a new challenge.

TEE OFF HERE↗

The Ryder Cup tells the same story. At Hazeltine in 2016, the 37-year-old defeated Justin Rose 1-up in singles, birdying 18 to seal the point for Team USA. Rather than staying composed and reserved, he turned to the crowd, roared, and celebrated like someone who genuinely loved the moment.

Even his 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic win, which ended a four-year winless drought, looked more like someone enjoying a round with friends rather than a player releasing four years of frustration. His body language was relaxed, and the smiles were real.

Of course, Fowler is human, and when he said he isn’t calm on the course, he was truthful about it. At the 2024 Players Championship, a spectator’s phone went off mid-swing on the 16th tee, and he snapped back immediately, pointing at the fan and shouting, “You! What are you doing?” He went on to make a double-bogey on the hole. Even at the 2025 Cognizant Classic, he told a disruptive fan bluntly, “That’s why you’re in the stands.”

So when he told that young fan, “We don’t stay calm,” he was not being modest. He was being accurate. The goal was never calm. It was always just to enjoy the game and beat the people next to you.

And it turns out, Rickie Fowler was speaking for the entire tour.

Golf’s meltdown season: Even the best are breaking

Robert MacIntyre shot 80 in Round 1 at the 2026 Masters, slammed a club, swore into live microphones, and flashed a middle finger toward the 15th green. His response afterward?

“I’m not proud, but it could happen again.”

That is not an apology. That is honesty.

Max Homa threw his club in frustration at the 2026 RBC Heritage, just days after publicly calling club-breaking a “bad look” from other players. The irony was not lost on anyone. Even the players most vocal about composure cannot always hold it together when the round turns bad.

Tyrrell Hatton’s foul-mouthed rant at the 2025 PGA Championship and Wyndham Clark’s outburst in the locker room at the 2025 U.S. Open, which actually led to punishment, showed that this is more than just a broken club now and then. No matter what rank or reputation someone has, the feelings are strong, and they eventually spill over.

Rickie Fowler never pretended otherwise. When he told that fan, “We don’t stay calm,” he was describing exactly what 2025 and 2026 confirmed across the entire tour. The difference is most players wait until after the round to admit it.