The Evolution Of Rickie Fowler And Allison Stokke's Relationship
Fans have been obsessed with Rickie Fowler and Allison Stokke's relationship ever since one of the golf world's most well-liked stars found his perfect match and they made their romance Instagram official. But even before the pair met, they had a lot in common. Fowler and Stokke were both naturally sporty from a young age and they both grew up in California: as kids, their families lived in Newport Beach and Murrieta. respectively. "Just a couple of Southern California kids always looking for the beach," Stokke wrote in a 2017 Instagram post, posing with her other half on a sandy shore in Liverpool.
And Stokke clearly loved being a West Coast girl, since she went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where the athlete followed up on her record-breaking high school pole vaulting career and competed in Division 1. Fowler, meanwhile, had become a mostly self-taught golf star in high school and was ranked as the No. 1 amateur in the world from 2007 to 2008 while he was at college. As he told the United States Golf Association in 2015, it was his Japanese grandfather who first got him interested in golf as a teenager. "And the Japanese side, the heritage is very special to me," Fowler explained, promising to visit his Japanese fans at some point and revealing that he played a junior tournament in Japan while he was in high school.
Keep reading to find out more about this adorable couple and how they found each other.
Rickie Fowler and Allison Stokke experienced fame at a young age
Although Rickie Fowler and Allison Stokke both found fame as sports personalities, they had very different experiences with online attention. Fowler was praised for his sense of humor when he poked fun at his own single status at the Ryder Cup in 2016. Meanwhile, Stokke first attracted an online fanbase for her looks when a photo of her pole vaulting at 17 went viral online with a comment calling her "barely legal," which she understandably resented. "Even if none of it is illegal, it just all feels really demeaning," she told The Washington Post at the time. "I worked so hard for pole vaulting and all this other stuff, and it's almost like that doesn't matter."
She later spoke to ESPN about how her sporting achievements and ambitions to make the Olympic team had been overlooked due to the attention. When she went on to college, for example, the school had to take her headshot down from its website to stop men from asking for a signed copy. "I think at some point Cal just decided: 'Don't put anything up about her.' So even if I jumped high or won a meet, they wouldn't put up a picture or article, and that's actually the kind of recognition I would have liked to see," Stokke observed, adding that she wanted to reclaim the photo. "My response back then, in 2008 — was I flattered? In some ways, sure. But I was overwhelmed, too."
Both of them achieved sporting excellence
After turning pro in 2009, Rickie Fowler was named the PGA Junior League Golf official ambassador in 2015, and he's won five PGA Tour events, as of this writing.
For her part, after Allison Stokke received unwanted attention from the internet over her appearance, she became even more motivated with her pole vaulting. "I've never seen this viral thing happen to a male athlete who isn't also already the best at what they do," Stokke told ESPN in 2016, explaining why she started pushing herself harder. "Yes, male athletes are also hailed for being incredibly attractive, but they're usually top-ranked in the world, too."
She even came close to qualifying for the Olympic team while she was at the University of California, Berkeley, where the couple later visited. "Our tour continued to Cal for @allisonstokke's homecoming ... thank you for showing me your stomping grounds!! I met some amazing people and look forward to getting back soon!" Fowler wrote on Instagram in 2017. But the Olympic dream unfortunately didn't come true, and Stokke ended up briefly retiring from her sport, before returning to it as a fitness model.
Rickie Fowler slid into Allison Stokke's DMs
After Allison Stokke transitioned from her athletic career and became a fitness model for brands like Nike, Athleta, GAP, and Uniqlo, she must have had a lot of men sliding into her DMs to shoot their shot. One stood out above the rest, however, and it was someone who understood her passion for her sport and her drive: Rickie Fowler.
"I reached out to her on social media. It seemed like someone that I felt like kind of fit with who I am," Fowler later revealed in 2019 in a video for Rocket Mortgage, recalling the beginning of their love story and describing which traits drew him to Stokke. "[She's] very genuine, obviously beautiful, and someone that I felt like would just be fun to be around," he reflected.
The video also showed Fowler and Stokke playing around on a golf course as the sportsman described what a typical date night looked like for them. "Ideal date night — cooking at home," he admitted, emphasizing how low maintenance their time together was away from the golf course. "Open a bottle of wine, and relax with the cats, working out, movie, popcorn."
They made their debut on social media in 2017
Rickie Fowler was known to the press as the cheerful, perpetually single golfer who had to pose alongside his competitors and their girlfriends. So a lot of people were intrigued when he and Allison Stokke made their social media debut in April 2017, marking the soft launch of their relationship.
The pair appeared together at the Moto GP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas and posted pictures together from the event. Their captions also matched up in an adorable way: "I won!" Fowler quipped, posting a picture of himself and Stokke posing together at the Formula One motor race. "We tied?" Stokke wrote in the caption of her own selfie with Fowler, making it clear that they had planned to coordinate their pictures.
After fans speculated about the nature of their relationship, Fowler confirmed that they were official in another post at the end of that May, poking fun at his own former single status and revealing that they had gone traveling to Baker's Bay Ocean & Golf Club together. "When you wish you could still be on vacation! #RickFoundaChick," the golfer wrote alongside a snapshot of himself beaming next to Stokke.
Rickie Fowler proposed a year later
After a year of dating, Rickie Fowler decided to get down on one knee and ask Allison Stokke to marry him. There was a third wheel at their romantic proposal scene, as well: fellow golf pro Justin Thomas, who was there as an unofficial photographer.
"Rickie, Justin Thomas, and I flew up to Southampton [, New York] a few days early for the U.S. Open," Stokke told Vogue in 2020, recalling how Fowler surprised her at the golf tournament. "At the end of the day, we were the only people on one of the beaches, and Rickie asked Justin to take a picture of us." The photos distracted Stokke while her boyfriend got out the ring he had bought. "After a couple of photos, I looked over and Rickie was down on one knee with a big smile on his face," she recalled.
"Today is National Best Friend Day so I wanted to lock mine down ... I WON!!" a jubilant Fowler posted on Instagram on June 9, 2018, showing off the ring and the picturesque beach where he proposed. Stokke posted a similar sentiment on her social media, writing alongside a winking face emoji in her own sweet caption: "And happy national best friend day to my best best best friend! I love you!!"
Their destination wedding was struck by disaster
After Rickie Fowler's romantic proposal to Allison Stokke, nobody could have predicted that their wedding day would come so close to disaster.
The planned ceremony in the Bahamas was sabotaged by Hurricane Dorian, which devastated the northwestern Bahamas on a historic scale in 2019. "Both of us wanted a destination wedding — a real vacation and getaway for our guests," Stokke later told Vogue. "We knew it was hurricane season but decided to take our chances, as the last couple of years had been relatively mild." But the hurricane hit a month before they were supposed to walk down the aisle. "The impact on the islands, their residents, and our friends in the Abacos was heartbreaking," Stokke added.
They ended up rearranging with weeks to go, putting together an intimate 48-person wedding in Mexico instead. "I've always looked forward to that moment walking down the aisle," the bride revealed, reflecting on the ceremony held at a golf and beach club in Cabo San Lucas that October. "It was pretty incredible to see him out there smiling and all of our close friends and family looking back." Stokke also described how they danced the night away and had to have the cake the following morning. "Last week was the best yet ... she's mine," Fowler commented on Instagram, with a romantic reference to their first social media posts together: "Still winning."
Rickie Fowler and Allison Stokke had a daughter in 2021
Allison Stokke and Rickie Fowler had a happy announcement to share in 2021. Stokke found out that she was expecting a baby that March, but the couple didn't tell anyone outside of their friends and family for another three months. "I was kind of waiting to be able to share with people, and then that's kind of when it starts to become real," Fowler told USA Today's Golfweek at the Travelers Championship that June. "Everyone tells me it's life changing. I'm looking forward to it." He also admitted that he would have to take some time away from golf once his baby girl arrived, but stated that he was excited about his new routine, noting, "She'll be the main thing. Everything else will kind of take a backseat."
Stokke revealed the baby's gender on Instagram by joking that Fowler would be outnumbered in his family as the only man. And when baby Maya was born that November, the golfer celebrated her birth on Instagram, while wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to his followers. "As you can see Allison & I are beyond thankful ... a whole new meaning to life!!" Fowler wrote alongside a picture of the happy parents holding their new baby, revealing that Maya had been born on November 18. "My heart is full!!"
Being a dad has changed Rickie Fowler's golf game
As Rickie Fowler admitted to Access Hollywood in February 2023, becoming a dad to an adorable baby girl had turned his whole life upside down in some ways — including his career as a golfer. "It's changed things a little bit as far as just the dynamic," Fowler reflected, adding that his priorities and time management had shifted now that he has "to be a little bit more efficient at practice and time spent at the golf course, 'cause I want to get home and spend time with her."
On the "Better Than I Found It" podcast just before Maya's birth in November 2021, Fowler confessed to host Mike McGraw that he would be trying to get his baby daughter interested in golf from an early age. "Probably some sort of plastic club that she can swing around, there'll probably be something in hand before she can walk," he joked, before explaining that he and his wife, Allison Stokke, would encourage any interest Maya had, even if it didn't take her on a sporting career like theirs. "We'll see if that's something that she takes to," Fowler continued. "If she does, great. If not, we'll find something else."