In this episode of the Scott Verplank Show, Scott talks with fellow Oklahoma State alum and PGA veteran Rickie Fowler about his recent hole-in-one on one of the nation’s elite courses — Pine Valley Golf Club — his trademark golfing attire and his plan to return to the ranks of the world’s elite golfers.
Episode highlights:
3:44: How his action sports and motorsports background figured in his decision to wear Sunday Orange and play tribute to his alma mater.
6:14: Fowler’s plan to return to the ranks of the world’s elite golfers.
9:26: How the age demographics of tour golfers has changed.
11:13: What’s best for professional golf and the value of an offseason.
14:48: Can team competitions be as popular with fans as they are with players?
The Scott Verplank Show features top golfers and personalities from the sport past and present. Please visit Scott’s sponsors:
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[Music] welcome to another episode of the Scott verplank show the Scott verplank show is sponsored by MidFirst Bank NextGen Roofing Oklahoma Ford Dealers Association Great Plains bank in the emac group today I’m joined by my good friend in Oklahoma State Golf alumni Ricky Fowler all right welcome to the next episode of the Scott verplank show and I have a really special guest um really doesn’t need an introduction um you can see who it is it is Mr Ricky Fowler uh Ricky thanks for coming on man yeah you got glad we could finally make this happen yeah I know you’re awful busy with little kid well one little kid and another one on the way and um I want to ask you right off the bat what was this video thing I saw about you making a hole in one were you at Pine Valley we were um so were you play were you playing the par three course no it was number three on the on the main course okay our second day we went up for a little trip Tuesday and Wednesday following Hilton Head and um I was I was a bit of a last minute addition um thanks they had uh Eli Manning was hosting and right JT was a part of the group and I think someone had backed out they needed a a replacement so um I gladly accepted and and went on the trip yeah so not a bad replacement for okay I got to who was who jumped on your back in this video that was JT oh my gosh dude I was like no get off of me you’re gonna kill himt was a little he was a little over excited about that I I would say he was he was definitely more excited than I was in a good way um yeah luckily having a two year two and a halfy old she uh prepared me for that moment yeah there you go yeah you braced yourself for having a little kid jump on your jump on your back not to call JT a little kid but um yeah I kind of know you good enough to know that you were excited inside but you weren’t going to be screaming and yelling and fist pumping and doing all that it’s not really what I know you since I’ve known you since College your style but that’s cool Pine Valley is awesome isn’t it yeah special place I hadn’t been there in a long time I played it once I think back in 2012 so to to go play Two Rounds um we played a few holes on the on the par three uh but it was just a great hang we had eight guys like I said um Eli and then plus seven so two groups stayed for dinner one of the nights um it was just a really cool trip to be a part of yeah no kidding now does that mean you’re going to get on the Manning cast anytime soon uh there was no talk of that we kept it uh you know very uh professional and having fun out there yes who knows with what business ventures may come from that um who knows we’ll see yeah oh well I was yeah well no that would actually be cool I know you’ve done you’ve done um oh college game day I know when they came to Still Water you were like the special guest picker I don’t remember how you did with your picks do you uh I actually I don’t don’t remember the the exact numbers I don’t pride myself on being a a Sports Guru by any means I don’t do any sports betting or anything like that um probably for the best I don’t think that usually works out um there’s a reason why why Vegas is Vegas um that’s a good theory so yeah um I I I know I know my my spot um I don’t I don’t uh I don’t try and be anything I’m not yeah well no that’s good you know like I said I’ve known you since you showed up in Still Water um and have always uh admired you and how you play and and I think that’s part of your persona from what I can tell so I wouldn’t change anything if I was you and speaking of that did you really did you have Envision or really have a clue how big your Sunday orange would become um you know kind of like you know they have this tiger Sunday red now for Tiger but you you know and he’s woring red but man you started wearing the orange shirt on on Sunday and Oklahoma State Golf was already on the map but you just enhanced it incredibly and did you have any idea it would get that big no no I I it’s nothing I think every everything was organic and it was just kind of me having fun and being myself um you know I guess in a way you can’t really plan for for those things um coming from you know just off background and stuff obviously the ORS being with with Oklahoma State and kind of carrying that over but coming from the action sports and kind of M across world you know guys aren’t scared to wear some some loud colors and have some fun and that’s kind of a way to show your personality and just um with your riding gear and helmet and stuff like that so um in a way that was a me a way for me to not many guys really wore Orange um I loved it obviously being in Oklahoma State and was a way to kind of be myself be different um but had no clue that um you know what kind of impact or how many kids would be running around in orange hats and obviously being able to associate that with Oklahoma State yeah no it’s it it’s really been astronomical you know the last oh couple few years that I played regularly on the tour was when you were just coming out and all the little kids with the orange hats and what I always got a kick out of was when there was like a 35-year-old down walking down the side of the hole and he had on his orange straight build hat and his orange his orange shirt and then his orange shorts and you know somebody would go hey there’s Ricky over there well got a big out of that yeah now those 35 year olds are are 50 now so um my my demographic luckily I still have a lot of uh kids supporters but there’s there’s um I have a lot of of die hards from day one and it’s it’s pretty cool to to hear and and see the the ones that have been with me um you know all 15 years on tour I I I think it’s awesome I agree you yeah the the uh older or the kids have grown up a little bit but they’re still hanging with you pars I I I know that cuz I you’re you’re a hell of a golfer and you’ve always obviously been great with people and everybody loves you which is man good for you so I got to ask you what is it going to take for you to get back into the top five top 10 in the world I know you’re working hard cuz I know you um everybody that’s as good as you are or better is working their butts off so you have a you have a plan I know plans don’t always go exactly but you have an outline or a plan set out to get yourself back in the mix in the rest of the majors this year yes I mean last year obviously got nice um glimpse of you know where where things should be can be um and still could be better from from where we were last year but I I think two key areas to allow myself to play golf one being driving the ball um well or obviously better than I they have to start the year and then putting uh putting is something that I’ve always been able to rely on up until the last few years putted well last year um drove the ball fairly well last year and I think with those two two things that kind of frees up the rest of my game you know not putting too much stress on iron play or if I’m playing from trees are rough uh then that’s putting stress um short game and putter I just feel like kind of the book ends getting off the tea and then and being able to have a flat stick that I can go and either take advantage of opportunities or or clean up when needed those seem to be two key Parts um that allow like I said from there to let the irons get going um and free up the rest of the game yeah I mean that I mean as you know is good or better than I do yeah when you drive the ball well you get to play offense you know and then if you then on top of that if you’re putting well then you really get to play offense because then you start going at flags that maybe you wouldn’t normally go at or maybe some other guys really aren’t capable of so and I do know that about you when you get it going well there’s it’s like you when you’re a little kid riding a motorcycle there’s no reason to back off um I like would love that about you when you were a freshman in Oklahoma State you and I were talking and you said oh I just go at every pen and I was like oh that’s cool and he goes yeah and you said yeah cuz if I miss the green I have this 63 degree or 64 degree wedge and I can I can chip it up there from anywhere and I was like go for it and I think it’s worked pretty well well there’s definitely there’s situations for that I think I’ve I’ve grown and gotten smarter but I mean yeah when you’re playing well and you’re like you said playing from the Fairway and you’re able to play offense go that’s what you have a short game for um especially if the Putter’s in a good spot um you know there’s no reason to to get too defensive and not take advantage of opportunities especially with I feel like how good guys are out there now it just seems you keep getting better and better younger and younger and if you aren’t taking advantage of some of those opportunities there’s other guys out there that AR yeah no there’s no doubt I mean the the talent pool um you know obviously it kind of Started With Tiger of coming out and he kind of changed the way game the game was played and and the athletes that are playing but then say around your age group I your age group kind of came out and you were ready to go um and not just one or two of you ready to go a dozen or more are ready to go and it’s kind of kept growing like that in my opinion you know there’s 15 or 20 kids that right now are going to be coming out of college that for all intensive purposes they have the game to to make it right away on the PGA tour um and that’s that’s good for golf but like you said you’re at the you’re at the spot where uh that’s why I want you to get your game back at the top because I want to see how you take on these younger guys cuz I’m pretty sure if you’re on that you’ll beat them yeah no I and you have to have the self-belief that you can go out there and when you’re playing well that you can go beat any of those guys um and that’s you know it’s the top guys currently um they’re just doing it more often than others um and if you don’t have that self-belief it’s going to be tough to play at the highest level on the PJ tour and compete um no it’s it’s a fun challenge I feel like where I’m at now I’m I’m probably above the average age on tour which I feel like when I first turned Pro and when you know my rookie year back in 2010 um kind of mid-30s was looked at as average age probably and somewhat towards the you know middle or maybe back end of of what would be the prime I think that has continued to kind of skew younger um you know average age on tour is probably you know around 30 or late 20s currently yeah I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s gone down um and I mean like you know I I can see that but there’s still room if you’re good enough you can play as long as you want to um and I could see you staying staying healthy you’ll be able to play as as long as you want to I don’t think there’s any doubt about that um what I don’t want to talk that much about it but I mean this all the stuff that’s going on in progolf the Liv stuff um the way the tour has kind of imploded and then put it back together in a different model what what’s your overall well even the you know what even the um the new league uh the is it TL tgl tgl yeah I mean all this how’s this all going to work together or fit together in your opinion I mean nobody you can’t you don’t have a crystal ball but I mean there’s lots of moving parts now that not everybody understands yeah it’s it’s definitely gotten a lot more complicated over the last few years ultimately for for I mean the best thing for the game is for everyone to be playing with and against each other how we get to that I’m not sure um you know there’s kind of the main two entities would be the the tour and live um so it’s it’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out but you know the majors are still will always be special but at least we have those where you know guys that are in we’re we’re playing it doesn’t matter you know where you’re coming from or where you’re currently playing right so it it will take some time it’s not going to you know happen overnight but I do think it’s best for for all of us and for for the future for guys to be playing against each other um you know and you know with the the schedule and and how it works I’ve always talked about an offseason being a good thing and that’s that’s not talking necessarily for the players um I I think that you know the game has gotten diluted over time um you know I agree basically every week of the year other than around Christmas you can turn on and there’s there’s golf being played um you know outside you know Golf and you look at other sports they have times where you you know you can’t watch football um right now people get excited for the buildup for football season so there’s got to be a way to make it work and and how all this fits into kind of the whole ecosystem the sports and entertainment cuz at the end of the day we’re we’re in the entertainment business um we’re lucky that we get to play golf for a living um but we have to have that fan engagement and people we need people to want to turn on and watch or show up at tournaments and come watch um so I I do think there are some good things with with live and looking at different Avenues of how to create you know getting different eyeballs whether it’s younger or different demographics you know with tgl something that is you know kind of the time frame you could you know in person or whatever it may be um there’s still going to be the traditional side of golf but I I do think there’s some some positives to to venturing out and seeing how how do we you know continue to to grow the game and and make it uh more exciting for other people yeah I don’t think there’s any doubt it is like you said it’s a it’s a at the end of the day for the fan It’s Entertainment and the fans are obviously the ones that make the make a professional sport go because if nobody watched there there wouldn’t be a professional sport at it nobody would care but um yeah I’ll be interested to see how the how the tgl you know if they could if if somehow that can grab a hold of this you know some sort of audience and maintain it because that could like you said bring extra people or different kind of people to the game um the team stuff you know I think there is you know you played at Oklahoma State and playing on the team the golf team in Oklahoma State I mean that’s a huge deal and those are your four best friends um that you’re playing with every week and you know how it is when you win a big tournament it’s a great feeling to be there with your friends isn’t it yeah um you know obviously haven’t won a major so don’t know that feeling but you know anytime you win on the PJ tour um you know any given week you know you’ve beaten a quality field um I wish I would have done more by this time but I’ve I’ve had a handful and you know players players being the top and they’re wins aren’t easy um some guys make it look easier than others I think tiger kind of spoiled that Scott currently doing it uh it’s it’s a lot harder than than people think oh there’s no doubt when in the no it is a lot harder than people think that’s that’s kind of where I was going though with like the team deal do you think there’s a place I mean maybe a few weeks a year where you have you know cuz you played heck you played Walker cups writer cups president’s cups every kind of same as I did every kind of cup you can play in and those are great weeks but do you think those weeks can be replicated um into a you know into either like the tgl or the Liv model to to make that fan friendly or make that where it’s worth watching yeah I I love the the team stuff I mean I stayed I stayed am for a few extra months to play a walker cup before turning pro um and obviously being a part of some Ridder cup some president Cup team so I think some of it where you can kind of create that Avenue um is the the less events and and ultimately opening up some some space where you can do that whether it’s integrated into the normal season and somehow Works in there um that’ll probably be tough just because of it’s it’s a lot of golf and um yeah I don’t know if it can go alongside a normal tour season um there’s some both sides are going to have to you know talking about the tour and live and um there have to be some give and takes um to to make it ultimately work um currently how it runs as far as how many tournaments there are on tour how the season goes and same with Liv how it flows and when they play uh you can’t merge those two with how much golf there is no I agree I mean guys just can’t play that much you know there’s and the tour is is you know the tour is somewhat guilty of that the a lot of the people you know make some of the people making decisions on how many when and where the tournaments are don’t play all those tournaments so they don’t really understand how hard it is to I mean I think I would argue it’s really hard to play more than about 20 events a year and really be ready for those 20 tournaments now and that’s changed through the years but I don’t know what your number is but but there’s definitely a number wouldn’t you agree yeah no if you’re looking say if you’re looking just at the schedule kind of January through August which would be the playoffs I think 20 is a a pretty solid number I I’m typically in the 24 to 25 but that’s that’s doing the whole calendar year um so you throw in a team event you throw in a couple events in the fall and you’re right there at the 24 25 um so yeah it’s a lot of people just think that you’re you’re playing golf which I could go play 36 holes every day at home and cruise around on the cart that’s that’s no issue it’s it’s a little different as you know playing tournaments uh week to week I I try not to play more than three weeks in a row if I can schedule it that way um and ultimately you know build up to and work to be ready for for the majors yeah for the yeah well and and as you should so have you ever have you ever wanted to be on the on the tour policy board or have you ever been asked to be on it I was on the pack last year um right I know that’s kind of a a start to to being involved at you know a bigger position if if you want it um I’m sure that’ll be something I’ll be a part of at some point um but yeah that I I would love to be able to do it and help out I feel like there’s there’s guys that are smarter than me and and better for that position but uh I want to continue to learn um and that was you know kind of one of the things uh I I did early on with with Liv was I sat down and met with them everyone knows that I wanted to learn what was going on so I had you know an idea and and kind of knowledge coming from both sides um so yeah I I want to continue to grow and learn the space and golf and business and I think there’s some incredible opportunities being with SSG and fway group now we have some very smart Sports and business people at the table um so yeah at some point I I do think that is H something I would I really like to do but I also want to get a little smarter and gain some some knowledge before I take a seat at the table you know as a as a veteran I appreciate you saying that I although I think personally you’d be great because I think you’re very levelheaded and you from the from the very beginning you didn’t like jump on one side of the other you just let it all Let It All get out there and let’s decide what’s best um and that’s probably ultimately what’s going to have to happen in the big scope of all professional golf but I like the fact that you did that for yourself um that shows me that you’re kind of mature more mature than you think you are and probably a hell of a lot smarter than you think you are so I wouldn’t mind if you were on the board I think that’d be good I one of the the big things and what’s hard to really do is is remove yourself from your current situation um and so when a lot of this stuff was being talked about with you know changes to schedule and trying to do some of these elevated events and different stuff like that um and being in those meetings with that smaller group of of players I was on the outside looking in so I wasn’t a part of it but I’ve always been a big kind of want to push for whether it’s the the fewer number of events or cutting down the playoffs to a smaller number because I’ve always looked at the PJ tours it’s the best tour it’s it’s meant to be elite um and it just seemed to continue to grow kind of in the wrong way as far as more tournaments more players um and you know now you’re currently in a spot where you know guys earn a card whether it’s from corn fair or PJ tour and they can barely get starts so I I if you earn a card you should be able to have the chance to play um so working that out um is is is part of it yeah there’s no doubt and and I’m with you 100% on that there’s it’s kind of there’s a couple kids that that live around here in Edmund at Oak Tree where I’m at that are they got a card but they never get to play you know or they rarely get to play and obviously they’re only playing the Lester tournaments with less money less points which I kind of get but like I said you need to get your butt on the board I think You’ bring a perspective that we’re missing but anyway you know what I don’t want to keep you too long but I want to ask you one more thing how cool was it to play in the Olympics for the United States was it cooler than playing in a ryer cup um cooler than winning you know a walker cup or NCAA Championship it was just very different um because growing up you know we all watched the Olympics and and thought it’d be a special thing to be a part of but you could never really think about it as a golfer um that was wasn’t an option so um the history on the golf side isn’t there like a Ridder cup um or being you know in contention at the majors it doesn’t quite have that feel because the history isn’t there but that’s going to continue to grow um for me what was special one being able to be there and walk Opening Ceremonies and be a part of something that is so much bigger than you or golf um and seeing the excitement or how much it meant to other athletes because that’s the Pinnacle of their sport um golf golf isn’t anywhere near that yet but the history will you know from starting in 16 it’ll it’ll get there I don’t think it’ll ever necessarily be to the level of maybe the Ryder Cup or majors um but only time will tell yeah no I agree I mean it’s it’s probably not going to catch the track and field or the or the uh discus throwing or anything in Olympics either since that’s about a thousand years old but um that is pretty cool that you that you did get got to represent the United States in the Olympics and I lied before I let you go I have one more question what happened with your dabbling and buying into a Champions League team weren’t you weren’t you and JT and maybe Jordan looking at like buying into a soccer team Jordan and JT ended up going in uh it was on leads um I was advised that it wasn’t necessarily worth the risk um coming from my crew so uh leads is actually looking like they’re they’re in a good position they’ve had a solid year in Champions League and might be able to sneak their way back up um so yeah it just ultimately I was advised that it wasn’t maybe wasn’t the best but we’ll see hopefully it works out for for Leeds and then for JT and Jordan well and the reason I brought it up is because you probably didn’t know but I’m I have a minority share in Venia FC in the Italian soccer league and we’d love to have another we’d love to have another investor Ricky so I’m may have to get you the information if you’re really interested in being part of a a football club then we may need you I’m I’m all in for for fun and creating it’s more creating interest and and you know having that’s awesome a part the gam stream I put them on my big screen and I watch them in Italian so I’m working on my Italian little different quite fun yeah a little different play than what you know leads with them being potentially being relegated now where they are chams Le they have a chance to to cruise back up but um no it’s cool it just it gives you not like sports betting necessarily but that gives you a reason to watch and follow and and keep up oh yeah no no doubt I’ve got more fun of being able to say that I you know have a little tiny interest in a football club in Venice Italy so it’s been great um Ricky thank you so much for coming on I’d rather not wear you out now maybe you’ll come on another time down the road um yeah definitely we’re all pulling for you here as you know um and really honestly I’ll see you at the PG here in a few weeks but really pulling for you to get right back up on top of the of the Mountain Man You’re great for golf um and we I love seeing the orange shirts on Sunday so thank you again buddy and uh I’ll see you soon sounds good we’ll see you out there all right [Music]
2 Comments
Love this content, LETS GO RICKIE!
Great interview!! Good luck Rickie ✌️😎