Heading into the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Rickie Fowler recounts winning the tournament last year and shares how he’s grown since. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral #PGATour
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Rickie Fowler eyes repeat win at Rocket Mortgage Classic | Golf Channel
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back Todd Lewis who’s got more on the defending champion this week at the rocket mortgage yeah it was an emotional victory for Ricky Fowler but if you were watching Ricky Fowler in 2023 it may not have been a surprise that he won here at the rocket mortgage classic because he came to Detroit after four consecutive top 15 finishes still though there is that heaviness that weight that he carried around of not winning in four plus years and those external expectations of his performance and more importantly for him the internal per uh expectations for his performance but he did get the Victory and today I caught up with him and I asked him to reflect one year later about how significant that went was uh it was just kind of a buildup of everything from the the years prior of struggling and and kind of battling through that and ultimately you know finally getting back into the Winter Circle so um just kind of Go full circle kind of how things work in golf uh life as well or just about anything um it’s never going to be perfect you’re always going to people are always going to have struggles and it’s it’s more about you know how you work through those times and and come out on the the back end in a better spot um so yeah it was just a big relief how would you say you mentally or emotionally approach the game now especially with expectations compared to maybe early in your career uh I mean definitely a lot more relaxed and uh you you know still want to you know compete I put plenty of pressure on myself and I’m I want to go and you know be in contention and and have chances to win tournaments and and win some more but um it’s also at the same time it’s it’s not everything um you know I I love to play the game of golf and if if I’m not out here playing tournaments I’m still at home playing golf um but there’s other things you know from spending time with you know my wife and little one and our second on the way um and I think there’s been some other things that have happened run our game this year that have put things into perspective for other people and understanding that hey yeah we enjoy what we get to do and appreciate it um but it’s it’s also like I said it’s not everything is that something this it’s not everything kind of attitude which is wonderful is that something you had to learn to do a little bit I mean early on you’re you’re you’re single you don’t have a family you uh you know basically go tournament to tournament and you’re you’re competing and it’s Love of the Game and love to to compete and and feel those juices flowing um and that never goes away but there’s there’s uh there’s other things that get added to your life and um kind of an evolution and uh just how really life goes and and growing up and you know having a family and um there’s other responsibilities and like I said I mean golf’s still my my my first love and always will be um but there’s there’s other things and other priorities too yeah family a big part of Ricky Fowler’s life and you heard him talk about that his wife Allison is expecting the couple’s second child later this summer now Ricky works with famed swing instructor Butch Harman the last time they worked together in person was at the Masters but they do communicate quite often Ricky sends videos of his swing to Butch and they talk on the phone quite a bit about making sure that his swing is in the right position now he comes here after a tie for 20th finish at The Travelers Championship last week that was just his second top 20 on the season so far he’s not playing as strongly as he did last year but I talked to him today walked with him a bit he is excited to be back on the grounds where he won last year and he’s hoping to find some of that Mojo that he had in 2023 here this week Whit Todd thanks very much that win in Detroit capping off a five tournament stretch where Fowler was in contention every week including the US Open last year where he was tied for the lead entering the final round eventually lost to Winden Clark but since then it’s been a bit of a log his best finishes have been 16th at the Tour Championship tied for 18th at the RBC Heritage trip Eisen now are back with us so trip you heard from Fowler little perspective talking about spending time at home but this is where things came together for him last year so you got to think there is some good mojo for Fowler well often times uh and I’ve you’ve seen it time and time again players that have struggled get back to a golf course where they have good memories and it clicks and uh that’s the ultimate thing that gets them rolling hopefully that happens for Ricky but I mean statistically you look it’s night and day uh from last year to this year is ball striking I it was 11th last year and T to Green uh game is approach game was so solid um and we always know he’s a he’s a great putter whether the stats bear that out he made the key putts that he needed to make here last year this year none of that’s happening I mean he’s down to 148th and strokes gain T to Green he’s he’s outside the top 100 in a lot of the other stats the strok gain stats so that’s kind of where he was in his slump but if we if you look at Ricky’s career over the over the course of it there’s always been this okay now we’re back and we’re going to see Ricky make a long run and and and and have a you know a win every season because he’s clearly that talented of a player and you go back to like like 2014 for example he didn’t win but he historically tied Jack Nicholas Tiger Woods as a player had top fives in all four major championships even though he didn’t win one and then that following year he has a two- win season and you think okay this is where we’re going to see Ricky The Talented player finally run off a couple years go by and then he wins again and you think the same thing and uh it just falls off again so I think there’s this EB and flow in Ricky and I and that just may be his DNA and when he gets motivated he works very very hard there’s no question about that but no matter where he is on the money list no matter where he is and finishes the great thing about Ricky Fowler is he will sign every autograph the fans still love him and Ricky gives back to those fans he is great for the game I would like to see him win a little bit more often and I’m sure Ricky would agree with me but maybe this is just the DNA of his career we have you know a win couple of Seasons where we don’t then we win again and I you know I think there are plenty of players who would be fine with that over the course of their career even though you want to be a little more consistent at the end of you look back and say you know what I had 10 wins I should have maybe won 20 but I’ll take those 10 wins I mentioned earlier trip this is the flattest golf course they’ll play all year long and that’s not an exaggeration the standard deviation is like 2 feet across the entire golf course and they’re looking ahead to Scotland and then the Open Championship uh what kind of preparation is this for these larger events that are coming up very soon now on the schedule I don’t think there’s much preparation other than like you said a flat topography that would be it uh you know it’s not going to blow like it does this is nothing like Link Golf you know it’s a softer venue um I I don’t think they’re looking to play in Detroit preparing for the Scottish uh you know in a couple of weeks or the Open Championship but again it’s a beautiful golf course I I love the old golf course old golf courses that we get to see on the PGA tour and it does have a challenging finish and again it would be nice to see someone like Ricky Fowler break out of his slump again and defend his title although I don’t think that’s likely but again I would love to see it trip eyes an hour on golf Central 10:5 start time on Thursday for Ricky Fowler at this Donald Ross designed gem in Detroit he is going off with Will zat torus and Cam Davis
