2016 Phoenix Open results: Rickie Fowler loses to Hideki Matsuyama in a stunning playoff

You were probably busy watching the first quarter of the Super Bowl, and the National Anthem, and the coin toss, and the pregame ... but the Waste Management Phoenix Open just staged a legendary playoff battle between Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama. Fowler led by two shots with two holes to play and it looked over, but almost 90 minutes later after a seesaw four-hole playoff, it was Matsuyama who walked away with win at TPC Scottsdale.

Fowler spent much of his front nine lurking around the lead, failing to capitalize on a few birdie opportunities to shoot ahead. He then chipped in for birdie on the 10th to take sole possession of the lead and at about 5:30 p.m. ET, this thing was over. Fowler was striping his irons and making every short-to-moderate length putt he needed to avoid giving shots away. A birdie at the 15th extended his lead and a birdie from about 10 feet at the rowdy 16th just burned the edge. That would have sealed it but he compounded that missed chance moments later when he rocketed his driver into the water at the 17th hole.

The 17th is a shorter, drivable par-4 but Fowler didn't necessarily have to hit driver, holding that two-shot lead. He pulled the big stick, however, and pumped what looked like a perfect drive faded right onto the green. He caught a bad bounce though and the ball rocketed straight through, rolling 358 yards into the water hazard on the back of the putting surface.

Trouble for Fowler.

#QuickHits https://t.co/1dVVJRlSF6

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 7, 2016

Critics were quick to chide Fowler for the "dumb" play -- why didn't you just hit a 3-wood and wedge and make par at worst. They have a point but in hindsight, it's hard to predict Fowler catching that bounce and shattering his longest drive for the week mark on that hole. He'd make bogey, Matsuyama would make birdie, and suddenly we were all tied going to the 18th. It was such an instant change -- one minute, the tweets were about Rickie "locking" up his fifth win since May, more than anyone else -- Rory, Spieth, and Day included -- in that time span. The next minute, he was getting lambasted and compared to Jean van de Velde for hitting a driver 358 yards into the water.

That decision at the 17th will get most of the play, but what followed was one of the great back-and-forth battles at the Phoenix Open. Both players made their longest putts of the day on the 18th to pour in birdies and force the extra holes. Matsuyama is one of the best tee-to-green players in the world, but his putting is often the one part of his game that holds him back. On the 18th, however, with Rickie tucked in close, Matsuyama was nails.

He knew it all the way.

Never a doubt for Hideki! #QuickHits https://t.co/YH8Mma6uS8

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 7, 2016

With that, we were on to extra holes and bearing down on Super Bowl kickoff. Neither player would give in. They replayed 18 two more times, making par and then birdie to push it to a third playoff hole at No. 10. Fowler bladed a pitching wedge way over the green but still escaped with a par to force a fourth playoff hole.

That fourth playoff hole? The 17th, Rickie's nightmare. About 90 minutes after smoking that driver through the green into the water, little Rickie yanked a three-wood left into another part of the water hazard. It's the NINTH time in his career he put one in the water on that hole.

Rickie Fowler is in trouble again at 17. #QuickHits https://t.co/7UxH8n4Ida

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 7, 2016

That was all Matsuyama needed to become just the second multiple PGA Tour winner ever from Japan, joining Shigeki Maruyama. This is a bump for Fowler, who should keep it humming and will continue to contend at the game's biggest events this year. Matsuyama is right there though too -- he's only 23 years old and an absolute stud from tee-to-green. He's got three top-ten finishes at majors already, and this early season win should set him up nicely for another run of contentions, starting at Augusta in April.

Matsuyama will not get the pub of Day and Spieth, and he probably won't win as many majors, but he's got the talent to push those contemporaries for the next 20 years, just like Rickie. Many had already switched to the Super Bowl, but this was an incredible battle and result for the PGA Tour.

We now move to Pebble Beach for the pro-am, where Jim Nantz will return from calling that brutish football game and get back in his lane, focusing his energies on the gentleman's game. Your final results from Phoenix: