The 34-year-old's last victory was 1,610 days ago at the WM Phoenix Open in February 2019 but in the intervening time he had slumped to 185th in the world rankings as recently as last September.

However, his game has been trending in the right direction and after back-to-back top-10s at the Charles Schwab Challenge and the Memorial were followed by a near-miss finishing tied fifth at last month's U.S Open, he finally got it over the line with a birdie at the first extra hole at the Detroit Golf Club.

He beat Canadian Adam Hadwin and two-time major champion Collin Morikawa, who had both outscored Fowler in the final round to negate the one-stroke lead he held heading into the last day.

Fowler's round of 68 was his worst of the week but he brilliantly birdied the last, hitting his approach to four feet, to get to 24-under and into the play-off with playing partner Hadwin already on that number heading down the last and Morikawa in the clubhouse on the same score.

"It's hard to really to put it all into words. Wining is great but there is a lot more to life than that." - Rickie Fowler.

Morikawa had forced himself into contention with a bogey-free eight-under-par round of 64.

"It's hard to really to put it all into words. Wining is great but there is a lot more to life than that," said an emotional Fowler, holding his 20-month-old daughter Maya on the 18th green.

"There's been a lot of good stuff this year and (I've been) playing some really good golf so I knew it was a matter of time.

"I've had a couple of tough weekends where I had a chance, the U.S Open (where he shared the 54-hole lead) I didn't get it done."

Cam Davis was the only Australian to make the halfway cut, the New South Welshman finishing in a tie for 17th in Detroit after a final round of 69.