Will Rickie Fowler ever win a major? That first major titles remains elusive for a player who is consistently challenging for honours without getting over the line. He will head to the Open Championship as a newly engaged man though and his relationship with a pole-vaulter from Florida could make the difference when it comes to the crunch at Carnoustie on Sunday.
Fowler has played 34 major tournaments without success since turning pro in 2009, racking up eight top-five finishes, including three runner-up efforts. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
He is a golfer who appears to already have everything - fortune, fame, film-star good looks - but his coach, Butch Harmon, once asked of a man who was in danger of being famed for his garish outfits rather than winning tournaments, "Are you going to be a Kardashian or a golf pro?"
In fairness, Fowler already has eight professional wins to his name, including The Players Championship (aka the 'unofficial fifth major'), but he has watched many of his American peers and friends beat him to that elusive maiden major win, with Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brookes Koepka and Patrick Reed all claiming major titles in recent years. What can he do to join them on that elite list?
The former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believed marriage helped footballers get the best out of their careers. "Marriage helps footballers, it helps them settle down," said Ferguson when Wayne Rooney had announced his engagement back in 2009. It is perhaps a cliché that could be attributed to golfers too.
Fowler will have a wedding of his own soon enough as he and his partner, Allison Stokke - who is a professional pole-vaulter and sports model - announced their engagement on Instagram last month. The pair started dating last year and Fowler will hope that he could follow in the footsteps of several other players who have gone on to win a first major after getting engaged, with Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson both ending long major droughts following significant changes in their personal lives.
Garcia held the unwanted record of having played the most majors - 73 - before he finally won the Masters in April 2017, nearly two decades after he made his major debut at the 1999 US PGA Championship. Garcia was 37 years old when he slipped that famous green jacket on at Augusta and it might just be coincidence that he had got engaged three months prior to that in January 2017...
Dustin Johnson played 28 majors before winning his first major at the 2016 US Open and his career had been beset by controversy before that. Johnson took voluntary leave from golf after reportedly failing a drugs test for a third time in 2014 and his career appeared to be heading in a downward spiral. Johnson got engaged to Pauline Gretsky in August 2013 before the birth of his first child in January 2015 preceded a stunning run of form - four top-seven finishes in five majors before he won the US Open - and his rise to his current status as world number one.
Plenty of other players have won majors without being engaged and before having children, although it is clear that a settled personal life helps other golfers when it comes to professional success. Fowler will be hoping that his engagement to Stokke can propel him to greater things after going to close to winning - his finishes in majors since the start of 2017 read: 11-5-22-5-2-20 - and a maiden major win at the Open Championship would go some way to rounding off what has been a stunning year on a personal level.
