Rickie Fowler has been battling the putting yips, he stated Thursday in Detroit.
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After Rickie Fowler’s opening spherical on the Rocket Mortgage Classic — a glowing six-under 66 — he spoke with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis and admitted one thing attention-grabbing: he’s been battling the putting yips.
Lewis complimented Fowler on his putting Thursday, and for good purpose: he gained practically three strokes on the greens, rating seventh within the area. He stayed bogey-free and completed with a flurry, making birdie on 4 of his final 5 holes to e book a spot inside the highest 10 at Detroit Country Club.
The sturdy putting efficiency got here every week after Fowler putted effectively on the Travelers in a T20 end, his second-best results of the season. What had he achieved, Lewis questioned, to show his putting round?
“I was trying going back to conventional and regular length for a little, then cross-handed the last three weeks or so,” Fowler stated. That’s nothing out of the odd, he clarified; he used to change forwards and backwards with some regularity and his first win on Tour got here putting cross-handed (in any other case generally known as left-hand low).
“But it just seems to have helped a little bit with feel and touch, and that’s a big thing,” he added. Obviously beginning the ball on line however controlling pace is one other variable in relation to putting, so I really feel like I’ve achieved job the final couple weeks of not solely hitting my traces however hitting it with the right pace.”
Lewis, to his credit score, went digging for specifics in his follow-up query. What does cross-handed putting do for him in comparison with standard?
“I would say over the last few years I’ve dealt with a little bit of my right hand having a little bit of twitch at times, which you could call it some sort of a ‘yip’, or there’s all kind of names for it,” stated Fowler. Lewis visibly reacted to the phrase “yip,” which is never uttered voluntarily by a participant, however Fowler put him comfortable.
“I’m fine saying it,” he continued. “When people have dealt with that, it makes it tough to trust hitting good putts. I was hitting a lot of putts that would start on line but it was more of a speed thing. Going back to cross-handed felt like it locks my right hand and wrist a little bit more to where I was able to use that as the driver purely for the touch and feel.”
Putting was clearly some extent of emphasis for Fowler even earlier than Thursday’s spherical. In Wednesday’s pre-tournament press convention he was requested about his latest ball-striking struggles and — counterintuitively — pointed to his putting.
“I think a big part of freeing myself up and allowing myself to play better golf starts on the greens and it helps when I’m making putts, which last week started to see that,” he stated. “I feel like when I’m putting at least up to my standards or at least average, it kind of frees up the rest of the game. So looking forward to hopefully leaning on the putter a little bit more going forward and allowing the others to kind of fall into place and see the ball-striking stats come back up.”
His season-long numbers assist that narrative and have all through his profession. So goes Fowler’s putting, so goes Fowler’s outcomes. In 2024 he’s 131st on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting and simply No. 91 within the FedEx Cup. During final 12 months’s resurgent season, which included a victory at this occasion and a berth on the U.S. Ryder Cup group, he completed forty eighth in putting and made it to the Tour Championship. But through the depths of his struggles in 2021 and 2022 he was 126th and 161st, respectively, and by September 2022 he’d dropped to No. 185 on the planet.
It wasn’t at all times this manner. From 2013 right through 2020 he gained strokes on the greens each single 12 months, highlighted by his 2017 season, when he led the Tour in putting and completed the season at No. 7 on the planet. He grew to become identified nearly as a lot for his silky stroke as for his orange apparel; it was the hallmark of his recreation.
To my data, Thursday was the primary time Fowler has publicly acknowledged preventing the yips, which are sometimes referenced as a illness or plague and have a near-mythical presence in golf. Some gamers are loath to confess their battle with the yips; others have instructed that admitting that battle is one key to restoration. It could be attention-grabbing to listen to whether or not Fowler’s admission is strategic or simply got here in a second of honesty.
One factor is for positive: three extra days like Thursday and he’ll be within the combine on Sunday with an opportunity to defend his Rocket Mortgage title. Last 12 months’s win at this occasion was his first win wherever since 2019; a win this 12 months could be his first time in severe competition since that win. Good play begins with good putting. Where does the nice putting begin?
“I was just trying to fairways and greens, wear those out,” he stated. So good putting takes the stress off his irons. And good irons take the stress off his putting.
Simple sufficient, on days like Thursday. We’ll see what number of Fowler can string collectively.
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