Players Championship 2015: Final Leaderboard Standings, Results and Reaction

This is the Rickie Fowler golf fans have been waiting to see for years. The 26-year-old beat out Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner on Sunday to win the 2015 Players Championship.

All three finished at 12 under for the tournament and entered a three-hole playoff. Garcia was the first culled from the field, leaving Fowler and Kisner in a sudden-death scenario on a fourth playoff hole. With a birdie on No. 17, Fowler bested Kisner to capture the biggest victory of his career to date.

The island green at TPC Sawgrass has felled many big names in the past, but Fowler continued to be undaunted by the intimidating aura surrounding the No. 17 hole. He performed well there all tournament, and on what proved to be the final hole, he delivered one of the best shots of the Players Championship (via the PGA Tour):

After his win, Fowler made sure to acknowledge the role No. 17 had in his success this weekend:

With Tiger Woods in a clear career decline, American golf fans have been searching for that next great United States-born star who can carry the torch. For the last few years, those fans have hoped that Fowler might be the guy, but the results never came.

Then, he finished in the top five of each major tournament last year, indicating he may have turned a corner in his career. If there was any doubt that he had, then Sunday's victory only confirms his ascent.

It's somewhat ironic that Fowler's Players Championship triumph comes in the same week he was named by his peers one of the most overrated golfers on the PGA Tour. Golf Channel's Justin Ray and Bailey Mosier feel that Fowler completely dispelled that notion Sunday:

ESPN's Jonathan Coachman felt that the narrative of Fowler's mother and girlfriend actually having to turn around and return to TPC Sawgrass to catch his final round only added to the narrative:

Fowler's win will really overshadow Kisner's performance. The 31-year-old has never won a PGA Tour event, but he looked like a seasoned pro as he tried to match Garcia and Fowler shot for shot in the playoff.

Golf Channel's Damon Hack was impressed with what he saw from Kisner throughout the tournament:

Kisner will certainly hope that he doesn't get stuck in another playoff anytime soon. ESPN.com's Jason Sobel made note of his rotten luck of late during his last two playoffs:

Few likely knew Kisner's name before the Players Championship, but that won't be the case anymore. It will be interesting to see how he follows this up in subsequent tournaments. The 2015 U.S. Open is a little over a month away. Maybe he can put together a great finish at Chambers Bay.

On the other side, golf followers might someday look back at Sunday as the one singular moment when Fowler's career truly took off. He stopped being a promising talent and became a fully actualized star presence.