Open Championship 2014 results: Rickie Fowler ties as runner-up, logs another top five finish

Rickie Fowler is starting to build up significant expectations for himself as the next American golfer with a chance to break through. The former Oklahoma State Cowboy made a nice little bit of history with his third consecutive Major finish in the top five on the leader board at the 2014 Open Championship, won by Rory McIlroy.

Courtesy of Justin Ray of the Golf Channel, Fowler’s hot start puts him in the record books:

Fowler played all four rounds in the 60’s, with his best round coming on Sunday with a five-under 67. He played a clean round of golf, in the final pairing, on the Sunday of a Major. Had it not been for the torrid pace of McIlroy on the first three days of the championship, Fowler’s performance surely would have been good enough to hoist the Claret Jug.

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The statistics on the week for Fowler show a golfer who, at age 25, has learned the lessons of what it takes to consistently contend in Major championships. He hit 51 out of 72 greens; that 70.8% average paced Fowler well ahead of the field’s average at 61.4%. He hit 64.3% of the fairways (36/56), slightly ahead of the field’s average and keeping Fowler out of the atrocious thick grass at Royal Liverpool.

Finally, Fowler seemed to make every putt he looked at on Sunday, rounding out a decent showing on the greens with 1.56 putts on average.

The future is bright for Fowler, with another shot at the PGA Championship at Valhalla.