Meritocracy, but the sponsors will bail you out! Seems like the smart play is working for Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth just fine who have been making headlines for some time now. Unfortunately for them, most have been on the negative side of things. One that is still keeping their names on the front page is the sponsor exemption by Tiger Woods that landed them in the ongoing Genesis Invitational in Torrey Pines despite no justifiable reasons for the special benefits. Clearly, the men have more than one trick in their pockets.

For starters, Spieth has not yielded a win since the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic. Last season, the 31-year-old only had three top-10 performances and 14 cuts in 22 events and ended up 80th in the FedEx Cup rankings. In 2025, the two signature events he got into through the special exemptions got him to an unimpressive T69 ranking in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with the tides turning for him in last weekend’s WM Phoenix Open where he finished T-4. He came close to winning at the Sentry last year but had to settle for the third position. Still, many would not even consider him a hot property in golf today. But his contacts have come in handy as he went straight to the green with the event he was disqualified from last season: The Genesis Invitational. Unsurprisingly to many, another ‘buddy’ of his from the ‘boys club’ is also enjoying the same treatment.

In 2021, Rickie entered the PGA Championship through special benefits but certainly made the most when he tied 8th in the event. But then his 2022 Genesis Invitational performance was anything but satisfying despite his T55 finish after a 118 start. Last year, he appeared in 23 events but missed six cuts with his single top-10 finish coming at the ZOZO Championship. Then take this year itself! Although he ended in Top-25 (T-21) at The American Express, his stars didn’t align in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where he wrapped up things with a T-53 finish. And then he withdrew from the WM Phoenix Open with 3 over 74 and a T-105 ranking despite making a promise to his fans: “Play better than last year.” Now again, he is on his way to glory once again.

After the Friday round at the Genesis Invitational concluded, both Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler scored over pars after the first two rounds. But, while Jordan Spieth missed the cut scoring 6-over, Rickie Fowler made it to the weekend with a 2-over. He is currently ranked T34 on the leaderboard, and who knows, he might even finally end up crawling to the top-10 after the final two rounds.

But the fans are doubting Fowler’s exemption more than that of Spieth’s. Even Tron Carter stated, “I think Spieth’s record warrants it, and I think him being hurt, having surgery last year, it’s almost like a major medical. If somebody else, like Rickie, for instance, I don’t think Rickie should be in, but I think Spieth warrants it. I have no issue with it, although I would be fine if they got rid of sponsor exemptions completely for the Signature Events.”

Interestingly, Todd Schuster, who goes by his alias name Tron Carter, is not the only one wanting a total cleanse on the exemption rules. You see, the sponsor exemption originally came into play to give younger golfers a chance to showcase their talents. Even then, they had a condition of having to make their place and earn the spot. To remind you, only the top 50 players from the PGA Tour’s FedEx points list, 10 players from Aon Next 10, and 5 from the Aon Swing 5 are eligible. But none of the four veterans made these cuts. Cue the ‘Boys Club’ accusations of biased treatments! Because why not?

‘Avengers’ assemble?!

Joining the 13-time PGA Tour winner, Spieth (84th), will be Fowler (85th world rank), Justin Rose (33rd), and Gary Woodland (182nd). Interestingly, even though the four got into the event with the help of the event host Tiger Woods, none except for Fowler made the cut after Friday. Rose just missed the cut starting at 4-over with a 5-over. On the other hand, Woodland was below Spieth, finishing 7-over with a lackluster performance bringing him down by 11 ranks.

Fowler did indeed make the cut by a small margin. But it was a huge relief to him because, after the first round, it did not seem he would be able to.

Rickie Fowler carded a double bogey on Thursday

It is always easier to settle for an ace than carding an eagle. That’s very rare. And that’s pretty much the same with carding a double bogey. One has to be in his worst shape to be able to do that, and well, Rickie Fowler was the same on Thursday. He began his round from the tenth hole with an even par, followed by a bogey in eleventh hole. The twelfth hole took a tougher turn for him, resulting in a double bogey, and that wasn’t in the plan. It all started with a solid 292-yard drive into the left rough, leaving him with a tricky 200 yards to the hole. His second shot, a 147-yard effort, landed him on the right fairway, but he still had 58 yards to navigate.

From there, things got a little messy. A 63-yard shot into the left rough left him with a long 15-foot 8-inch putt, which he couldn’t convert. Trying to recover, his chip came up just short, leaving him 9 feet 4 inches from the hole. The 6-foot 4-inch putt to save par wasn’t much better. In the end, after a final attempt from 8 feet 7 inches, the ball finally dropped into the hole. While he did manage to score two birdies through the round, they could not do much damage control.

He ended with a 5-over. Opening the second round with a birdie to add four more and carding only two bogeys through the round helped him make the cut. Had he fallen short of just three more shots, he too would have been out of the game by Friday with Spieth. But now that he has made the cut, his fans will be expecting him to create magic. Do you think he will be able to do it? Stay tuned to find out!