Rickie Fowler recaps ‘solid start’ at 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Defending champion Rickie Fowler talks over his performance on the first day of the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic, explaining how he was able to keep things “stress free” in Round 1. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral

» Subscribe to Golf Channel: https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1
» For the latest news around golf: https://www.nbcsports.com/golf

Welcome to Golf Channel’s official YouTube channel. We are the #1 destination for everything golf – 24/7. Find golf instruction tips, sneak peeks to our original series, news and tournament coverage. We are part of the NBC Sports Group.

Discover what else Golf Channel has to offer:
Live Coverage on Peacock: https://peacocktv.smart.link/v82e9dl56
Live Scores: http://bit.ly/GCScores
TV Schedule: https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/schedule
Instructional Tips: https://www.golfpass.com/learn
Golf Course Reviews: http://bit.ly/GCCourseReviews

Rickie Fowler recaps ‘solid start’ at 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic | Golf Central | Golf Channel
https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1

so we look at Fowler today coming off of Fowler from last year this is the par for second yeah beautiful drive 136 yards for Ricky and well that sits in there just 11 ft behind the hole and well what we hadn’t been doing this year with is when we hit shots like this we haven’t been making putts in fact 112 from 10 to 15 ft but that gets the party started for our Defender going to that oversized Mallet style putter a lot a lot of players are heading in that direction these days on the par five fourth for birdie yeah this about 27 ft for Ricky fer look at this one very fast don’t want to be past these hole locations but Ricky Fowler that would be his longest putt of the day takes him to two under and now on the far five 15th his third so good with distance control you have to be with these wedges after nine straight pars well that’s going to be an easy birdie I’ll go ahead and give him that one that was the 14th and now after making that birdie ahead to 16 for birdie nice little shot tugged it from 164 but like I said from 10 to 15 ft he was rocking it today and the Puma hats approved so he is at minus four he going to take a crack at it on the par five 17th yep Ricky power with a fivewood got to get after the fivewood Look At That Swing his swing really started looking good last week and that is in rhythm in balance and the result nice little shot onto the par five it’s going to be an easy two- putt bird so that was a two- putt bird as mentioned so he’s at minus five and now on the 18th for bird and nice little shot as I said 10 to 15 ft very proficient today in fact 66% of the time he made the putts that he had from that length 66 was the magic number for Ricky Fowler as he opens up his title defense without a bogey look at the numbers hitting 16 greens today six birdies no Bogies and he is off to a flying start Fowler talking with Todd Lewis after his round Yeah clean score carard for Ricky fer you bir four of you last five holes how would you assess this round today um good solid start um you know with the kind of conditions there wasn’t a whole lot of wind but um we we got some rain earlier in the week so pretty soft you know po greens can get get interesting in the afternoon and um actually thought the our back nine which is the normal back nine but you think that they would maybe get worse as the afternoon went on I thought the back nine actually rolled better than the front so um was able to take advantage of that coming in uh but really just told myself try and hit as many greens as possible um kind of take the stress off of having to try and make par putts and stuff like that um had to still make a couple but I kept it fairly stressfree and gave myself some opportunities to to make a few birdies and um like you said coming in to kind of finish it off what has generally been a strength in in your career is putting uh you said you putted better last week you putted well today is there something that you’ve altered in your putting uh over the last few weeks to to produce these numbers uh well I mean I was trying going back to to Conventional or regular length for a little bit um you I’ve gone to cross-handed the last 3 weeks or so um which is not something out of the ordinary my first win was cross-handed I used to kind of go back and forth a lot through um amateur and uh first few years on tour um but just seems to have helped a little bit with kind of feel and touch um and that’s a a big thing obviously starting the ball in line but um controlling speed is is another variable when it comes to putting so I feel like I’ve done a good job the last um couple weeks of not only hitting my lines but hitting it with the proper speed can you get a little more specific at what cross-handed does for you as a putter compared to Conventional um I would say over the last few years i’ I’ve dealt with a little bit of my right hand having a little bit of a twitch at times which you could call it some sort of a Yip or any there’s all kinds of names for it say that I’m I’m I’m fine saying it it’s um you know when when people have dealt with that and and having you know something that affects your touch or feel um it makes it tough to you know trust hitting good putts um was hitting a lot of putts that would start online but it was more of a speed thing um so going back to cross-and it felt like it kind of locked um my right hand and wrist a little bit more um to where then I was just able to use that as as the driver and and purely for the the touch and feel