Slumping Rickie Fowler starts strong with 64 at Travelers Championship

CROMWELL, Conn. – Rickie Fowler doesn’t feel far away from the version of himself that outlasted Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin in a playoff to win last year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic – a resurgent victory that culminated a feel-good comeback.

His stats and results this season suggest otherwise.

Fowler is outside the top 100 in every strokes gained category, ranks 111th in the FedExCup and has notched just one top-20 in 2024. All the momentum he cultivated last year has seemingly halted.

That made Thursday’s first round at the Travelers quite the welcome development. Fowler shot 6-under 64 at TPC Highlands, navigating the 6,835-yard layout with ease and validating his assertion that good golf is not far away. He hit 14 greens, needed just 23 putts to record his bogey-free round and jumped into contention.

“I'm significantly closer this year from where I was a few years back,” Fowler said, a reference to a three-year stretch from 2019-2022 when Fowler managed just four total top 10s. “So, yeah, it's just more of just a lot of disappointment as far as knowing how close it is and not having a couple shots go the way I thought they would or a few putts go in and change kind of momentum and kind of how the season or round had been going.”

That jolt of momentum came quickly on Thursday. Fowler holed an 8-foot par putt on the first hole that settled him in and set him up for success. Fowler made 124 feet of putts and gained more than three strokes on the greens. Fowler converted short putts for birdie on Nos. 2 and 3, then holed a 24-foot birdie on the seventh. A 39-foot birdie on the 17th highlighted Fowler’s matching 32 on the back nine. He was second in SG: Putting when he signed his scorecard.

“Putting was something that I could rely on last year, something I've tried to get back to where I was, as well as other parts of the game,” said Fowler, who ranks 131st in putting this season. “But I feel like a lot of it can go back to not putting well.

“Finally some actually went in instead of dodging the hole,” he said.

The year has tested Fowler’s mental fortitude, though it’s far from how he felt when he was truly searching a few years back. That period of struggle provided Fowler enough perspective to avoid getting too down on himself. He’s missed five cuts this year after missing just two all of last year. He had eight top 10s in 2023; he has zero this season. That has led to frustration, but the brief moments of disappointment and anger quickly wash away now. There are more important things than what happens on the golf course.

“I can deal with just about anything," Fowler said. "It's not how we wanted to play this year or start out and continue to play poorly throughout the year, but I mean, it is what it is, we'll continue to grind.

“I think a big thing is always kind of trying to put things into perspective, family stuff, you know, with some of the guys we've lost part of the family out here on the TOUR, yeah, it's not that big of a deal.”