Already a fan-favorite on the golf course, Rickie Fowler also inspires people outside of playing. In 2011, he founded the Rickie Fowler Foundation to help with the education of underserved youth. Specifically, the golfer focused on providing aid to Japanese and Native American communities, which comes from his own heritage. To bring even more awareness to these communities close to his heart, Fowler became the executive producer on the Netflix series “Basketball or Nothing” about a high school basketball team with many Navajo players. “My grandma grew up on the reservation, and I’ve always wanted to be able to do more stuff with the native community, so this was a perfect fit,” Fowler told Forbes. “Not a lot of people know what the reservations are all about, why they’re there, and what the living conditions are like there. This gives them a glimpse into that world,” he added.
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Naturally, Fowler has also used his impressive golf skills to help others. Like when he participated in Ernie Els’ yearly golf event Els For Autism. At the 2016 event, players tried to hit a hole-in-one on the 19th hole to earn $1 million for Els’ foundation. A video shows Fowler lining up his shot from 111 yards away and only a few seconds after swinging, the ball rolled into the hole. “It doesn’t happen very often but pretty cool to be able to do that for Ernie and the foundation,” he told the Golf Channel.
