He was T16 in 2023. But come 2024, Rickie Fowler has currently found himself at the 111th spot on the FedEx Cup Fall standings ahead of the Shriners Children’s Open. But no worries, for he just needs to finish inside the top 125 this time around, as per the new ‘off-season’ regulations, something which he finds a bit “hard to adapt to.”

The golfer was spotted in an interview ahead of the Shriners Children’s Open when he was posed with a query about the changes in the FedEx Cup system. His reply? “It’s had a few changes over the last few years and it’s going to continue to change,” said Fowler. “I would say it’s a little hard to adapt to where might be currently because that could be something that will change in the coming years.” Interestingly, 2024 would be the second time the PGA Tour Pro has found himself playing in the new system.

Even so, he was more focused on playing to his best ability than anything else. “Really, at the end of the day, you play good golf, and all things kind of fall into place and everything kind of gets answers,” said Rickie Fowler as he emphasized the need to emerge victorious this Fall season. His reason? Well, it would be to stay on top of his game and be the admired golfer that he is.

You see, he already has an exemption into next year’s season, owing to the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic win. He just needs a victory during this Fall season to get into the 2025 PLAYERS Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the Memorial Tournament. After all, these events are the elevated ones wherein only the best of the best golfers compete. Fowler sure wants to be a part of the field.

“Making sure that I stay inside the top 125, you know, so I’m in The PLAYERS and some other events,” added the athlete before pointing out, “And being that I won last year, not necessarily having to worry about too much. I’ll be okay regardless for next year.”

A bit too much work, isn’t it? To calculate the ‘requirements’ to stay inside the top 125?! Rickie Fowler feels the same. As he mentioned ahead of the upcoming event, “I think trying to get too caught up in the numbers trying to break it down and figure out what you might need to do, you can get lost in that a bit. Go play good golf and the rest will take care of itself.” And that might be what he did last season without thinking too much about it, so much so that he managed to finish T16 on the FedEx Cup standings.

But how did he finish outside the top 50 when he was in the top 20 last year? Wasn’t that too much of a fall for the American athlete? Unfortunately, as it seems, Rickie Fowler didn’t have the best of seasons this year on the men’s circuit.

Rickie Fowler and his 2024 PGA Tour run

Over the 21 events that he teed off in the men’s circuit this season, Rickie Fowler has missed the cut a total of 6 times. Even so, in the rest 15 tournaments that saw him making the cut, he could not finish inside the top 10 in any of them, let alone card a victory in one. Quite a disappointing number even if you take into consideration the fact that the golfer has just 3 top-25 placements in 2024 as opposed to the 18 top-25 finishes he carded back in 2023.

Yes, you read that right! Out of the 26 events that he teed off in, the athlete made 24 cuts while missing the same in just two. Moreover, he had also raked in a win and a runner-up position, alongside 8 top-10 finishes to garner a sum of $7,864,161 throughout the season. After taking a peek back at his previous year, you kind of understand his mindset when he said, “Play good golf, and the rest will take care of itself.” His fans would surely be hopeful that he regains the form that he had in 2023.