Rickie Fowler has been named the 2026 recipient of The Arnie Award, presented by Golf Digest, an honor recognizing the player who best embodies the spirit, generosity and fan-first approach of Arnold Palmer.
Fowler, a six-time PGA Tour winner including the 2015 Players Championship, will be honored this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a Palmer bronze sculpture created by artist Zenos Frudakis. Golf Digest will also donate $50,000 to the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation in Fowler’s name.
Now 37, married with two children, Fowler still carries the flash that made him a California phenom — the style, the hair, the easy smile that traces back to a kid who grew up racing dirt bikes and filming viral videos with The Golf Boys. But his lasting appeal has always run deeper.
It’s in the self-possessed calm he projects — an observant, thoughtful demeanor that resonates with fans and peers alike. His grandfather, Yutaka Tanaka, noticed it when he took a pre-school Rickie fishing. “He didn’t talk much, mostly just watched,” Tanaka told Golf Digest in 2016. “When we fished, he did everything right.”
That same attentiveness defined Fowler’s first meeting with Palmer in 2006. Seventeen years old and competing in an AJGA event at Bay Hill, Fowler was introduced to the 76-year-old icon when Palmer drove up in a cart to greet him. “I remember his handshake and eye contact were strong,” Fowler has said, “and that when people gravitated to him, he made them smile.”
Over the next decade, Fowler evolved into one of golf’s great ambassadors, a role shaped in part by his growing friendship with Palmer.
“Arnie really cared about his fans, and I watched him always react to them just by being himself,” Fowler said. “Seeing that told me that the best way to handle a lot of attention was to continue being myself. It makes the interaction more real, especially with kids.”
That influence is evident in the way Fowler gives back. His foundation supports youth-focused causes, and he routinely stays late at tournaments to congratulate winners or spends extra time with fans and media — even during stretches when his own results have dipped.
In 2023, Fowler purchased the 15-acre Murrieta Valley Golf Range in California, the modest, all-grass facility where his grandfather first brought him at age 3 and where longtime coach Barry McDonnell taught him until his death in 2011. Aside from plans for a junior learning center, Fowler has kept the facility largely unchanged, with little outward sign that he owns it.
“Rickie gives back with so much of himself, somehow making time for everyone,” said Sam Saunders, Palmer’s grandson and a longtime friend and competitor. “He thinks about the game holistically instead of just what it can do for him, just as my granddad did. He carries that torch very well.”
Amy Palmer Saunders, chairwoman of the Arnold Palmer Group, said her father saw something familiar in Fowler.
“He liked that Rickie was compelling to a broad audience and a different audience, just as he had been when he came onto the scene,” she said. “But what he loved about Rickie was his awareness of the players who created the pathway for his generation. As much as my dad had a great rapport with all the guys, with Rickie there was an extra depth.”
Their bond was forged through moments large and small.
At the 2011 Seminole Pro-Member, Fowler shot a winning 63 while playing in the same group as Palmer. Around that time, he stopped calling him “Mr. Palmer” and started saying “Arnie.” At the 2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational, after a late triple bogey cost Fowler a chance to win, Palmer invited him to sit at the locker room bar. They shared a drink. Tiger Woods stopped by. “Arnie did what he did — made me feel good,” Fowler recalled. “One of my best memories.”
Even difficult conversations deepened their connection. In 2016, Fowler made the drive from Jupiter to Orlando to tell Palmer in person that he would skip Bay Hill to better prepare for the Masters. “One of the hardest things I ever had to do,” Fowler said. Palmer was disappointed, but grateful for the face-to-face respect. Weeks later, they shared a final handshake at Augusta National during Palmer’s last appearance as an honorary starter at the Masters.
When Palmer died in September 2016, just days before the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, Fowler honored him in quiet but powerful fashion. At a team dinner, as players ordered drinks, Fowler said loudly enough for the table to hear, “I’ll have an Arnold Palmer.” Soon, the entire table followed suit. After the United States’ victory, it was Fowler who carried the Ryder Cup trophy into Palmer’s memorial service in Latrobe.
Since 2017, Fowler has worn commemorative Puma apparel at Bay Hill, with proceeds benefiting the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation — another example of how he has woven Palmer’s legacy into his own career.
“Since we lost Arnie,” Fowler has said, “giving back has become more meaningful because he knew how to do that better than anyone else.”
In naming Fowler the 2026 Arnie Award recipient, Golf Digest recognized more than tournament victories. It honored a player who, like Palmer, understands that the game’s greatest currency is connection — and who continues to carry that torch forward.
