Two days after taking a cheap shot at Rickie Fowler, Nick Faldo walked his words back with a social media apology.
On Tuesday, Faldo quote-tweeted a response to a tweet that noted that Fowler has yet to qualify for the Masters in April, writing, “Good news is if he misses the Masters he can shoot another six commercials that week!”
That was a serious burn and it didn’t take long to go viral. (Faldo, a six-time major winner, also doubled down with the following tweet that noted his three victories at the Masters.)
In a video, Faldo, a World Golf Hall of Famer and CBS Sports’ lead golf analyst explained that he’s actually an admirer of Fowler’s and he was just trying to spur Fowler on.
“Like everybody, we want him to find his game as soon as possible,” Faldo said. “So, five years ago now, he was voted by the players as the most overrated player on Tour. It motivated him to go and win the Players literally the next week. So, a couple years later when things were gone quiet, I said to Rickie, ‘Hey, I need to give you a bit of needle, mate, to motivate you.’ And he said to me, ‘Bring it on.’
“OK, it’s years later, so hopefully he still remembers that.”
Fowler has been mired in a slump and hasn’t won since the 2019 Waste Management Open. He hasn’t posted a top-10 finish since last year’s American Express and entered the week ranked No. 65 in the world. Fowler is in danger of missing his third cut in his last four starts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Faldo isn’t the first to criticize Fowler’s over-exposure in commercials.
“I wish Rickie well,” Faldo continued. “I want him to play great, get out there, play to the top of the leaderboard, and that will all be fantastic for all of us.”
Faldo also blamed his British style of humor, saying, “in the future, I’ll restrain from digging in a little too deep.”
In Faldo’s mea culpa, he also conceded the comment “was probably born out a little bit out of jealousy.” He noted that unlike Fowler’s seemingly endless list of blue-chip sponsors, he only has one television commercial.