Before his early exit from last week’s U.S. Open – and first run of back-to-back missed cuts since Summer 2022 – Rickie Fowler was asked to characterize his season.
“I’ve basically played terrible this year; pretty simple and easy way to sum it up,” Fowler said Thursday afternoon at Pinehurst. “Just kind of been waiting. I’m putting the work in, but I’m kind of having to stay patient to see some kind of progress and actually take advantage of these next few weeks and put myself in position where I’ll get to play in August some more.”
Could Fowler’s wait be over?
Fowler shot 6-under 64 Thursday at TPC River Highlands to grab an early share of the Travelers Championship lead. With a hot putter, Fowler totaled over 124 feet on just 23 putts. He holed an 8-footer for par on his opening hole and didn’t bogey any of the other holes either. He holed birdie putts of 14 feet (No. 16), 24 feet (No. 7) and 39 feet (No. 17) as part of his six total birdies.
It’s the putting that has bugged Fowler most this season, which has seen Fowler fail to notch a single top-10 finish and only one top-20 in 16 starts. He’s No. 131 in strokes gained putting after ranking No. 48 in that category last season, when he snapped a lengthy victory drought in Detroit and contended at the U.S. Open at LACC.
He also was seventh in strokes gained approach a season ago and didn’t rank worse than No. 77 in any of the four major strokes-gained stats; this year he’s outside the top 100 in all four.
“Putting was something that I could rely on last year, something I’ve tried to get back to where I was, as well as other parts of the game,” Fowler said Thursday at the Travelers. “But I feel like a lot of it can go back to not putting well. Like I was saying, putting well helps free up other things. 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.”
Fowler, though, doesn’t feel like his struggles are anywhere near as bad as they were during his three-year slump that caused him to drop as low as No. 111 in the Official World Golf Ranking. While he’s No. 111 in FedExCup points, the only top-50 finisher from last season ranked outside the top 90, Fowler is still hanging on to a top-50 ranking, entering this week at No. 49.
“I’m significantly closer this year from where I was a few years back,” Fowler said. “So, yeah, it’s just more of just a lot of disappointment as far as knowing how close it is and not having a couple shots go the way I thought they would, or a few putts go in and change kind of momentum, and [that’s] kind of how the season or round had been going.”
