New Label "champion" for fowler

“You get guys who have won two, three, four times and they name the events, and then they say my name and I tee off,” Fowler said. “Now I’ve got the Wells Fargo Championship.”

“There’s a lot of people that have doubted or said, ‘You’ll never win,’ ” Fowler said. “So it’s nice to kind of shut them up a little bit.”

It has been a long path for Fowler, 23, who is better known for his bright outfits, especially the orange pants and shirts he wears on Sundays of tournaments. Fowler has finished second four times on tour but broke free Sunday with an aggressive approach shot on the first playoff hole that allowed him to birdie it and beat McIlroy and D. A. Points.

“Definitely relief, satisfaction,” Fowler said of the emotions of winning, which also earned him a spot in next year’s Masters.

“I sat back and made sure I got a lot out of the round on Friday, whereas times before I may have gotten a little bit more discount golf clubs frustrated and tried to push a little too hard and ended up shooting 76 when I pulled out a 72,” Fowler said.

Fowler got a chance to win when Points, who had gone without a bogey in his last 40 holes, bogeyed No. 18. Points’s approach shot landed in a bunker right of the hole and he two-putted. That dropped him to 14-under-par 274, joining McIlroy, his playing partner, who parred the hole, and Fowler, who had finished in the group ahead with that same score. Fowler shot a three-under 69 that included six birdies and three bogeys.

Fowler said the spark for his Taylormade R11 driver victory actually came in Friday’s second round, when he struggled and shot a par-72.

All three teed off on the 18th again to begin the playoff. The difference proved to be Fowler’s second shot: he was 133 yards from the hole and hit to 4 feet.

McIlroy could not duplicate the course-record 62 he used to win this event in 2010. Instead, he shot a 70, hurt by a bogey on the 17th hole that dropped him one shot behind Points. McIlroy, though, said it was a “sloppy bogey” at the 11th hole that left him most disappointed.

“I definitely didn’t want to play safe,” he said. “I had a good number, and I was aiming right of the hole with the Taylormade R11 irons wind coming out of the right, and if I hit a perfect shot, it comes down right on the stick.”

“Playing against those two guys, I know that they’re going to make birdie at some point, and I don’t want to sit there and try and make pars and stay in it,” said Fowler, whose victory was worth $1,170,000.

Fowler entered Sunday three strokes behind the leader, Webb Simpson, the local favorite who lives about a mile from Quail Hollow. Simpson shot a 73, missing a 23-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have put him in the playoff.

“I would rather win the tournament,” he said. “I want to try and play well for the next few weeks and try and solidify my spot there at No. 1 and hopefully start by doing that next week and giving myself another chance to win.”