Was it a cheap shot or a motivational ploy? Maybe both?
Two days after his tweet went viral taking Rickie Fowler to task for being overly commercial, Nick Faldo issued a social-media apology.
On Tuesday, Faldo quote-tweeted a response about Fowler having yet to qualify for the Masters in April. Faldo, wrote, “Good news is if he misses the Masters he can shoot another six commercials that week!”
Faldo, a three-time Masters champion and CBS golf analyst, later doubled-down by also tweeting out “would you rather have a boatload of cash” or three Masters victories?
But by Thursday, with Fowler opting to stay off the Twittersphere, Faldo posted a video apologizing to the 32-year-old golf fashion plate.
In his video on Twitter, Faldo explained that he admires Fowler and he was just trying to motivate him to play better golf.
“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.”
This week, after an opening-round 4-over-par 76, Fowler shot a 70 on Friday, moving up to a tie for 65th place and barely making the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.
–Field Level Media