By all accounts, Rickie Fowler’s 2024 has been a catastrophe contained in the ropes. However after simply 5 rounds within the FedEx Cup Fall, the five-time PGA Tour winner is trying way more like his standard self. Having posted profession lows by way of top-10 finishes, whole strokes gained and strokes gained off the tee within the common season, Fowler is starting to seek out his sport with a gap spherical of 5-under 66 on the 2024 Shriners Kids’s Open serving as the most recent proof of one other attainable resurgence.
Fowler’s efficiency was sufficient to place himself inside the highest 10 on the leaderboard, albeit 5 strokes behind taking part in competitor Taylor Pendrith, who practically added his identify to the sub-60 membership however as an alternative settled for a 10-under 61.
Fowler completed outdoors the highest 100 within the FedEx Cup standings and missed the whole thing of the postseason following a 12 months the place he contended in main championships, reentered the winner’s circle for the primary time in 4 years and took part on the U.S. Ryder Cup workforce. His downfall in 2024 was simply as stunning because the upswing of his 2023 — particularly when elevated FedEx Cup factors at signature occasions are factored into the equation.
Because of this, Fowler has turned to the autumn as a possibility to play himself again into kind forward of the 2025 common season. Whereas he could not play himself into signature occasions — the place the highest 30 within the Official World Golf Rankings and high 50 within the FedEx Cup qualify — his identify is prone to illicit sponsors’ exemptions into such occasions.
These alternatives usually tend to come if he continues the standard he has proven his final 5 rounds. After posting 4 rounds within the 60s on the Sanderson Farms Championship, marking solely the second time he had finished that in a match all 12 months, Fowler was at it once more at TPC Summerlin on Thursday.
The 35-year-old was practically flawless from tee to inexperienced as he hit 14 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens in regulation. He went across the par 71 with no dropped shot and has room to enhance as he searches for a way of consolation on the greens with a brand new LAB putter in hand; Fowler missed 4 birdie possibilities inside 10 ft together with two inside 4 ft.
Whereas he would love for the putter to cooperate, these are all implausible indicators for Fowler. He didn’t birdie three of the best holes on the golf course. He ranked sixtieth out of 74 gamers within the morning wave in strokes gained placing. In a 12 months when the driving force has been a notable shortcoming, he led the sphere in strokes gained off the tee.Â
Just like two falls in the past, Fowler is starting the see all phases of his sport extra clearly. All that continues to be is for him to piece all of them collectively once more.