Rickie Fowler doesn't have a lot of windows into his mind.
His greatest strength has always been away from the golf course. He is measured, polite and never controversial, which is one reason he has been a ubiquitous commercial presence in our lives for nearly a decade. No one in the game has ever been better at building up his popularity while at the same time presenting a friendly blank canvas to the world than he is.
There are times when he doesn't offer much. Monday was one of those rare times. He said that he has been working with someone on the mental side of his game, trying to accept negative thoughts as they come, then flush them out before he stands over the ball. He did not want to name the person.
Fowler doesn't know if he wants to throw names out there.
Fowler has been struggling over the past few years. He has fallen to 146th in the Official World Golf Rankings. He missed the cut five times in nine starts. It has been more than three years since he won a tournament. He is in the field this week because he finished T-8 at the 2021 PGA Championship, but is in danger of missing the next two majors without a dramatic rise this summer.
Fowler said that going through it was never fun. Even though we have been in tough spots, I have embraced the grind and the aspect of just taking every day and going out and enjoying it.
Fowler was a bit of a mystery before this stretch of disappointing results. Although he didn't win at the same clip as some of his peers, he had an attraction to fans both young and old. You can't watch golf on television without seeing clips of him selling insurance or mortgages. Other players on the Tour started joking that it should be renamed Rickie Tour Live because he was selected for featured groups so frequently.
Fowler has always been eager to celebrate the success of his peers, so the jokes never felt driven by resentment or jealousy. Before Ted Lasso made acts of kindness seem cool again, Fowler was out there hugging people for trophies, even ones he wanted badly.
Fowler said that there have been plenty of times where he has finished and signed his card. It has been great to have my friends by my side. It is going back to competing with your friends. When you know you have beaten your friends and they beat you, there is no better feeling than that. You got me this week. Let's go battle it out next week.
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Even if Fowler doesn't return to the form that made him a top 5 in all four majors, he believes the key to finding it again is a visit from The Ghosts of Swings Past. Fowler had one of the flattest backswings in golf, a move that generated a lot of power but sometimes didn't hold up the way he wanted. He had a lot of success working with the man. In the past few years, he has been working with his coach, John Tillery, on some elements of his old swing.
There is a reason that swings that worked that may have had some positions that looked unconventional, or against vanilla, have had success. My job is to help him navigate that process of what he already knows how to do.
His current focus? He needs to get back to the target as quickly as possible so that his arms don't get in the way of his return to the ball.
Through college golf and my first few years on the Tour, my body was working, even though my swing was kind of unconventional. It has been a long road.
There is still a question of which tour Fowler will be showcasing his progress on. Fowler said on Monday that he hasn't made up his mind about joining the LIV Golf tour, though he has not been one of the biggest names rumored to be interested. He sounded very much open to the idea.
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Fowler said that he hasn't made a decision yet, but that he thinks the PGA Tour is the best place to play. I do. Is it possible that it can be better? Yes. Competition has always been a good thing. It is the driving force of our game. Being able to have games with guys at home is how I grew up. Competition makes people better, whether it is business or sport. It is interesting, that is for sure.
Five years ago, losing Fowler to a rival golf league would have been a disaster for the future of the tour. With the emergence of young stars like Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, Tour executives would probably lose less sleep over it. It would still feel like a big deal in the world of golf. Fowler used to be the most popular golfer on the tour, drawing young eyeballs to the tour, particularly ones who weren't around for Tiger Woods. His departure would have a bigger impact on the long-term viability of LIV Golf than some of the names bandied about, most of them players who are past their prime.
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Any player who goes to the LIV Tour events, even if they get a release, will be subject to a lifetime ban from the PGA Tour, something that is likely to be challenged in court. Fowler said it would be nice to know if a ban was actually enforced, but for some players, the consequences may not matter. They are going regardless. He is still looking at his options.
Fowler asked if we were independent contractors or not.
It wasn't that long ago that Fowler didn't have to think about such matters, when he was the future of the PGA Tour and it was only a matter of time before he won his first major. His future was not limited.
At least in theory, it could still be. Fowler insists he never lost his hunger for the game even at his lowest point. He has never believed that he would benefit from putting the clubs away for weeks at a time.
Tillery said he had to work fast on the range.
Taking ownership of his swing is part of his next evolution.
Fowler said that there was a lot of good things coming soon.
It might be possible to return to the past to light the way forward.
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