Rickie Fowler has showed that he has everything from talent to style, and more essential he can handle pressure like a veteran. Dare we say, he’s the real deal? He certainly has the attention of the golf world and has swiftly become a fan favorite.

In only his second start as a professional, he found himself in a three-way playoff with Troy Matteson and Jamie Lovemark, another young, rising star. Unfortunately, he lost on the second playoff hole to Matteson. Still, a T2 isn’t so bad, not to mention it was his second top-10 finish in two weeks!

He stole quite a bit of Matteson’s thunder, too. He fired a final round 6-under 64, which included a sweet ace on the 5th hole.

Rickie’s strong showing sure added a ton of excitement to the usually somewhat dull Fall Series. I mean, who wasn’t glued to their TV during that final stretch? More important to note is the Golf Channel’s man-crush on the kid. It was nonstop Rickie-gushing (but, hey, can you blame them?!). In Saturday’s telecast, the commentators mentioned one of their producers thought Rickie looked like a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Then, during his round on Sunday, they did a split screen of him and Leo. So, it appears golf has a new heartthrob. Finally.

With the $440,000 check he took home, he’s earned a total of $553,700 in two weeks! This puts him around 130th or so on the money list — he needs to be in the top-125 to secure his full 2010 Tour card. Now the big question is what he’ll do next. Rickie has said the plan all along has been Q-school. But, given his fantastic finishes, the decision was easy for him:

Right now I’m gonna go to Viking next week. Gonna fly out in the morning. And then I’m not sure if I’m gonna get to second, possibly third stage. The plans are still to go to Q-School. I’m gonna go into next week with the same game plan I did those last two. Seemed to work out pretty well these last two weeks, so we’ll see what happens next week.

Either way, the chances are good he’ll get his card. He also might become the first player since Ryan Moore in 2005 to dodge Q-school, and before him, the last player was Tiger Woods.

One thing is for sure: It’s great to see a young guy, especially one that’s as fun to watch as Rickie, put himself in contention so fast out the gate. If he keeps playing like this, he just might get his first win very soon.

[Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]