Rickie Fowler’s return to form already feels like distant memory

Late in the summertime of 2022, Rickie Fowler was deep in a well-documented spiral. He hadn’t received since February 2019, hadn’t performed in both the Masters or the U.S. Open since 2020 and his world rating had plummeted to 185th. Desperate for solutions that he wasn’t discovering within the grime throughout marathon vary classes in South Florida, Fowler known as Mr. Fix-It, as in his former swing coach, the legendary Butch Harmon. Over the approaching months, Harmon and Fowler reunited, each nearly and in particular person, and piece by piece started rebuilding the swing that had as soon as made Fowler a top-5 participant and constant risk within the majors.

Progress got here rapidly: T6 on the Fortinet in mid-September; T2 on the Zozo, in Japan, in October; extra consistency throughout nearly each a part of his sport. When the brand new yr dawned, Fowler picked up the place he’d left off. After lacking 9 cuts within the 2021-22 season, he didn’t miss a weekend in 10 begins from January by way of early May and completed high 15 six instances. That made-cuts streak ended on the PGA Championship however he rapidly regained his form, ending T6 and T9 in his two begins earlier than the U.S. Open. If you’re a Rickie fan, you understand what got here subsequent: a 62-68 begin on the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club that gave Fowler the solo 36-hole lead. Was Fowler lastly…again? The golf world seemingly needed to shout as a lot from the mountaintops, however Fowler was reluctant to ship the required sound chew.

“I wouldn’t say it’s all back,” he stated ominously after his second spherical in L.A. “It can get taken away very quickly. Anyone that plays this game at all, you never know.”

Fowler didn’t win that week — a 70-75 weekend left him 5 behind Wyndham Clark, in a tie for fifth — however he did nab a victory simply a few weeks later on the Rocket Mortgage Classic, knocking off Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin in a playoff. For the primary time in additional than 4 years, Fowler was a PGA Tour winner once more.

This week the Tour returns to Detroit Golf Club for the 2024 version of the Rocket Mortgage. As defending champion, Fowler ought to be among the many favorites, however the sportsbooks know what Fowler is aware of: At least a few of his struggles have returned, and even his +5,000 odds are most likely beneficiant. In 17 begins this calendar yr, Fowler is with out a top-10 end, and nearly each a part of his sport has contributed to the slide. In every of the six main Strokes Gained classes — from driving to iron play to placing — he ranks exterior the highest 100. “You’re seeing it throughout the bag where things haven’t been as good,” Fowler stated Wednesday. His world rank, which had climbed again to 21 in the midst of final yr, has dropped to 50, however Data Golf, which places higher weight on current efficiency, has him at 98.  

Form, as any golfer at any stage is aware of properly, comes and goes, and it may be tough to pinpoint the second it leaves you. But in Fowler’s case, his play has been unremarkable since his win a yr in the past. From mid-July of final yr by way of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he had only one top-20 end — on the 30-player Tour Championship. As a captain’s decide on the Ryder Cup, Fowler performed solely two matches and received no factors. He opened the 2024 season by lacking two cuts in his first 4 tournaments.

“Obviously terrible start to the year for me coming off of last year,” he stated in early-March on the Cognizant Classic, close to his West Palm Beach, Fla., house. “Never got anything going on the West Coast. I don’t think we exactly had the best weather, either. I’m not blaming it on that, but it definitely didn’t help me to get things going.” He added, “I’m ready to kind of get things going back how they were last year.”

But issues didn’t get going. In his subsequent 10 begins, Fowler cracked the highest 20 simply as soon as, on the RBC Heritage, adopted by two missed cuts, on the Memorial, the place he carded a second-round 82, and the U.S. Open, the place he posted a second-round 77. Last week on the Travelers: a small ray of sunshine. Fowler closed with a 65 that landed him a T20.

So, what’s the deal? Fowler has nonetheless been working with Harmon, his final in-person session coming on the Masters in April. But he believes his woes are stemming much less from his full swing than they’re from his ineffective placing; Fowler is dropping 0.244 to the sector on the greens, which ranks 131st on Tour. That deficiency, he says, has put stress on him to execute different photographs.

“A big part of freeing myself up and allowing myself to play better golf starts on the greens and helps when I’m making putts, which last week started to see that,” he stated Wednesday. He was echoing a sentiment he had expressed on the Travelers on Sunday when he stated: “You’re not seeing putts go in and it kind of adds some extra stress to having to hit greens or hit it closer, chip it close, that circle gets quite a bit bigger once you see some go in.”

When requested on the Travelers if he’s feeling annoyed, Fowler stated: “Definitely not anywhere as bad as it was a few years back, but some similarities there. Having been through that and dealt with that and ultimately coming back to playing well, I can deal with just about anything.” Then he added one other acquainted chorus: “I think a big thing is always kind of trying to put things into perspective, family stuff, you know, with some of the guys we’ve lost part of the family out here on the Tour, yeah, it’s not that big of a deal, but we all kind of just continue to grind.”

Fowler was referring to Tour professional Grayson Murray, whose May suicide despatched shockwaves by way of the Tour group.

Fowler isn’t the identical one who burst onto Tour in 2010 with orange pants, shoulder-length hair and seemingly limitless potential (he beat out Rory McIlroy that season for Rookie of the Year honors). He’s a household man now, with a spouse and younger daughter and one other baby on the best way. Winning nonetheless means rather a lot however “it’s not everything,” he informed Golf Channel reporter Todd Lewis this week.

When Fowler was unable to capitalize on his halftime U.S. Open lead and win his first main, he stated on Sunday night of that week — this was after capturing a disappointing 75 — that seeing Maya earlier than he ducked into scoring “kind of takes a lot of that away, because in the kind of big picture, big scheme of things, yes, we want to win tournaments and be the one holding the trophy, but she could care less if I shoot 65 or 85.”

Fowler himself nonetheless cares what he shoots, in fact. Even if his perspective has developed, he’s nonetheless prideful and hungry; his profession might be short-lived if he’s not. Can the throwback Donald Ross design that awaits him this week function a spark?

“It’s a fun course to play,” he stated, “and especially having good memories and coming off the win last year, we’ll see if we can kind of reignite some stuff.”

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s government editor, Bastable is accountable for the editorial path and voice of one of many sport’s most revered and extremely trafficked information and repair websites. He wears many hats — enhancing, writing, ideating, creating, daydreaming of someday breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely gifted and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Before grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the options editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey together with his spouse and foursome of children.