Butch Harmon Recalls Rickie Fowler Sinking "Beyond Rock Bottom" As A Golfer Before They Finally Reunited
Why does ANYONE ever let go of legendary swing coach Butch Harmon? In this story I'm about to link to from the New York Post, it's plainly stated that he doesn't force his services upon other players. Is he a colossal dick otherwise? I don't think so.
Sure, Harmon retired from traveling around on the PGA Tour in 2019, but don't many of these elite players fly private all the time? Any time I'd need a tuneup or a check-in, I'd be booking it to wherever Harmon's home base is. The man is pretty much unparalleled in his profession, and his son, Claude, is a fine swing coach in his own right.
Tiger Woods employed Butch Harmon from before he was a pro through 2004. All that happened in that span was him winning eight of his 15 majors and putting on literally the most dominant stretch in the sport's history. Then Tiger decided to overhaul his swing with Hank Haney. Sure, he won plenty under Haney and thereafter, but Tiger never matched his peak around the turn of the millennium. It's literally one of the greatest "what if?" scenarios in sports history. What if Tiger never left Butch?
Was winning the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes at Pebble Beach despite making a triple bogey not…good enough…?
OK back to the subject at hand. Once Harmon stopped traveling around the Tour, Rickie Fowler was forced to find another coach who could be more hands-on. Enter John Tillery, who must have a decent client list. Let's face it, though, nobody can compare to Butch Harmon, with the likes of Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and plenty of other major champions among his pupils.
During that three-year stretch with Tillery, Rickie fell into the worst slump of his career, couldn't even qualify for majors a lot of the time, and threatened to derail the prime of his career. We're talking about a guy who finished top-five in every single 2014 major championship. By all accounts, no hard feelings between the guys…but Rickie was in dire straits.
As the New York Post reports, Rickie dialed his ex in November and said, "Butch, I'm lost. I need help. I don't know what to do." Here's what Harmon had to say about how he had to rebuild Rickie's confidence and mental game in addition to his swing.
"Some guys have got to hit rock bottom. Rickie went beyond rock bottom. It pained me to watch him. I love him as a friend. And, as I watched him struggle, I was wishing he’d pick up the phone and call me. […] He was so lost. He had no idea what he was doing. […] I have mental talks with him all the time. I am a really positive person. He's come from a dark place in golf and I'm not going to take him back there.
"[…] The tip-off is he's got that little step back. You can see he's happy again. He's in a good place mentally. You can see that energy in his body that he'd lost when he was struggling. He's back. He's going to win. The game needs him to win."
Not exactly a perfect analogy to Thanos' famous "You couldn't live with your own failure…" proclamation from Avengers: Endgame but pretty damn close. When it comes to maximizing your potential as a golfer, however, Butch Harmon should definitely putz around the range, hover around his former clients and be like…
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Turns out Thanos wasn't inevitable (SPOILERS) so I'm gonna stop going down this analogy track.
POINT IS, Rickie Fowler is way better off with Butch Harmon, wasn't even close to as good as he was before or since, and he's found remarkable consistency of late. Check out Rickie's past 12 starts. Only one missed cut after MCing eight times in each of the last three calendar years.
That may not be the most "spectacular" form guide, yet you can connect the dots and deduce that Rickie has been on the precipice of a breakout performance. Looks like it may be happening at the U.S. Open this week, considering he's the 36-hole leader and has made a ridiculous 18 birdies through two rounds.
Rickie explained how he'll meet with Butch in Florida on occasion in person. Much of their interaction consists of sending videos back and forth — the wonders of modern technology — and Rickie can also lean on Craig Harmon, Butch's brother, when he's at his home base in Florida hitting balls with him.
Whatever it is, whatever secret or dark magic Butch Harmon is capable of channeling, it's working.
When I was studying abroad in 2011 I got to see Rickie in action at The Open Championship. Tickets were hella cheap and it was about an hour bus ride out to Sandwich/Royal St. George's, so me and a few classmates went. It was literally the most brutal conditions you could imagine. Raining cats and dogs. Raining sideways. My umbrella SNAPPED and broke. We took cover behind a small TV tower for a good half hour before deciding to embrace Mother Nature's pressure-packed projectile precipitation.
So yeah, while I could barely fucking stand, Rickie shot a two-under round of 68 in a major. The clouds parted just as the leaders were coming down the stretch of the last six-ish holes that Saturday, so they really lucked out. I've seldom been more impressed by a golf round from anyone in my entire life. To get in the clubhouse in red figures amid those conditions?? Get the fuck outta here.
Any notion that he doesn't work hard, doesn't care enough about golf or what have you just because he hasn't won "enough"…I think it's all ridiculous. For me, any such nonsense was eradicated that day. Rickie forever earned my respect. By the way, get a load of what Rickie said after matching Martin Kaymer's 36-hole U.S. Open scoring record if you still have doubts about his commitment, per the NY Post:
"Going through the last few years, yeah, there’s probably plenty of people that might have just hung it up. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but looking [back], I did, just because of how much I learned about myself, my swing, my game. I wouldn’t be in this position had I not gone through the last few years. I’m looking forward to the weekend. It's been a while since I’ve felt this good in a tournament, let alone a major. It’s going to be a challenge, but I'm definitely looking forward to it."
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Another stat that bodes well for Rickie's chances this weekend:
I agree with Butch. Golf needs a Rickie redemption arc at a major championship. I'm glad Butch was the man Rickie turned to after a few years bumbling around in the dark. Can't wait to see how it all goes down on U.S. Open Sunday.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok