After a dramatic drop in production over the last three years, Rickie Fowler took matters into his own hands prior to the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs, and the results are beginning to show.
The five-time winner on the PGA Tour fired his caddie and swing coach in August, and after being the last person to make the playoffs, shot a 64 in the opening round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
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He followed that up with his first top-10 finish in nearly a year with a sixth-place effort at the season-opening Fortinet Championship.
After a missed cut in Las Vegas last week, it allowed Fowler to get to Japan earlier than expected to prepare for this week’s ZOZO Championship, and after an opening-round 67, Fowler fired a 63 on Friday to stand tied for the 36-Hole Lead at -10 with Andrew Putnam.
Rolling it @RickieFowler gets to -10 and a tie for the lead @ZOZOCHAMP. pic.twitter.com/IDbPXNKtgn
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 14, 2022
With the missed cut at the Shriners Children’s Open, it allowed Fowler to work some more with Butch Harmon, who he began working with again after a three-year break.
Fowler said:
“I’m very happy with where we’re at… Obviously didn’t have the week we wanted last week, drove it poorly, but with some of the changes we’ve made and to have the finish that we did at Napa and kind of seeing a lot of good things, I’m definitely happy about it and excited to be here and off to a good start.”
Fowler, in this tournament on a sponsor’s exemption, has been eating up the par 3s. Of the ten chances on par-3 holes, Fowler has seven birdies, two pars, and one bogey.
Fowler is holding the 36-hole lead for the first time since January 2020. The rest of the weekend will tell if he’s able to win for the first time since the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Cover Image Via SkySports
