NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
BROUGHT TO YOU BY GOLF PRIDE, THE #1 GRIP ON TOUR
Why hasn’t Rickie Fowler been able to orchestrate a comeback?
His ballstriking isn’t necessarily the issue. He came into last week ranked No. 38 in strokes gained tee-to-green this season, and even last year he was still well above PGA Tour average in the category. He has ranked outside the top 50 for the stat only once in the past seven seasons.
His struggles revolve mainly around his putter.
Back in the 2016-2017 season, Fowler was No. 1 in strokes gained putting and generally considered an elite putter, on the same level as Jordan Spieth. He gained strokes against tour average in all but one of his first 11 seasons on tour, generally using the skill to maintain his place as a top 10 player in the world.
That touch has stunningly deteriorated in the past three seasons as Fowler was No. 60 in 2019-20, No. 126 a season ago and now – hold your breath – No. 205 coming into last week’s Honda Classic. There are only 216 players who have played enough rounds to qualify for the ranking.
So, to the surprise of no one, Fowler has gone searching for a solution. After flipping back and forth between Scotty Cameron and Cobra putters in the past year, Fowler decided to game a TaylorMade putter for the first time in his career, going with a blacked-out Spider GT. The 35-inch putter with 3 degrees of loft has a single sight line and wings that give the head perimeter weighting for added forgiveness.
“It was more of a new look just to try and change the mojo a little bit and ultimately something where I wasn't going to have to think as much,” Fowler said during his news conference ahead of the Honda Classic. “Just kind of step up, hit it and know it is going to start on line.”
Fowler used the new flatstick at Riviera and continued with it at PGA National. The early returns are mixed. He lost nearly three strokes to the field on the greens in Los Angeles while still making the cut — and then gained more than four strokes against the field with the putter in Palm Beach Gardens through the first two rounds.
TaylorMade was in a lot of gear news the past couple of weeks. Dustin Johnson replaced his TaylorMade Rescue with a DJ Proto 3-iron, Sergio García switched to a 10.5-degree Stealth Plus driver and Matt Kuchar added an 18-degree Stealth fairway wood.
Also of note, Titleist has been on a serious run with players winning with their balls. Joaquin Niemann used a ProV1x at the Genesis Invitational, making it five consecutive players to win using Titleist.
Sean Fairholm