Rickie Fowler ended a massive title drought at last year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. Then things fell off for him again.
As the headliner of a beatable field, Fowler will try to get lightning to strike twice in his return to Detroit Golf Club when the Rocket Mortgage Classic begins Thursday.
The PGA Tour’s signature event series is in the rearview mirror after Scottie Scheffler captured the Travelers Championship last week for his sixth win of 2024. Most of the tour’s elite players are catching their breath this week, but Fowler and a handful of other top-50 golfers are in Detroit, hoping to capitalize while Scheffler is away.
Fowler tied for 20th at the Travelers, but that was just his second top-20 finish of the season. Perhaps being back at this par-72 Donald Ross design will spark something in him.
“I feel like it’s a fairly simple, old-school golf course and if you can just get to the green, it becomes a bit of kind of who can make more putts throughout the week,” Fowler said.
“It’s fun, we don’t get to play very many old-school golf courses like this so it’s a treat for a lot of guys who can appreciate kind of old-school golf course architecture.”
Fowler won a playoff over Collin Morikawa and Canada’s Adam Hadwin last year after they tied at 24-under 264. It was Fowler’s first win since February 2019. The year before that, Tony Finau (not in the field this week) set the scoring record at the relatively new tournament at a whopping 26-under 262.
The highest-ranked golfer in Detroit this week is South Korea’s Tom Kim (No. 16 in the world), followed by No. 23 Cameron Young. Kim lost to Scheffler in a playoff at the Travelers, while Young shot a 59 in the third round but still finished five shots behind Scheffler and Kim.
Kim said he understands playing the PGA Tour means “you lose 99 percent of the year,” and he’s hoping to take lessons learned from the Travelers with him.
“I feel there’s so much more to gain when you have weeks like that,” Kim said. “It’s a positive week, but you always look at it as OK, how can I do better? You feed off so much and I think that’s how you keep adding up good weeks and adding up your successes and leads to winning big golf tournaments.”
If you’ve been hearing Kim’s name a lot lately, that’s because this will be his ninth consecutive start without skipping a week, generally unheard of on tour. He’s yet to win this year but did tie for fourth at the RBC Canadian Open earlier this month.
“It’s my ninth week and I’m feeling like it’s only my second, I’m feeling really fresh,” Kim said, crediting his fitness regimen.
The feel-good story of the week is Miles Russell, who at 15 years old will make his PGA Tour debut on a sponsor exemption. The No. 1-ranked junior in the world became the youngest winner of both the Boy’s Junior PGA Championship and the Junior Players Championship last summer.
“I have my own goals, but my goal is just to come out here and have fun,” Russell said. “That’s my main goal, have fun, maybe learn something, take something to my next event.”
–Field Level Media
