Rickie Fowler rallies to make Rocket Mortgage Classic cut

DETROIT – Rickie Fowler was going the wrong direction, but he rallied with three back-nine birdies and shot a 1-under 71 to make the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.

It was his first made cut since the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in March

“Knew I needed to jump on the horse and get things going,” said Fowler, who is working on swing changes and came into this week 108th in the FedExCup and 31st in the world. “Made a few better swings on the back nine.”

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Fowler, a Rocket Mortgage and Quicken Loans ambassador, had missed the weekend rounds in his previous two Return to Golf starts, at the Charles Schwab Challenge and RBC Heritage. He had struggled with blisters at the RBC, where he missed the cut by only a shot.

“It's nice to finally have a Saturday tee time,” he said. “I'm kind of sick and tired of taking weekends off, so I really wasn't looking forward to that. Needed a little back nine action. We got it done.”

Normally one of the best putters in the game, he looked into lackluster recent results and realized he was standing too close to the ball, which was leading to chaos in the stroke. Having adjusted, he saw some improvement in a solid first round at the Rocket Mortgage. He narrowly lost strokes to the field on the greens in round two.

“Everything's been getting better and better,” Fowler said. “Yesterday (a 5-under 67) could have been a lot better than it was, but happy with the progress we're making. Like I said, Saturday tee time's a good thing. It's a pretty bunched up leaderboard. Go put together a good one tomorrow morning and we're right back in it.”