Rickie Fowler will travel to Ponte Vedra with two former champions. Justin Thomas, the 2021 winner and the defending champion, Scottie Scheffler, who torpedoed Bay Hill this week on his way to a five-shot tittle snatch, have been paired with Fowler. Let’s also not forget that Fowler is himself a former titleholder of the Players Championship. 

The 35-year-old clinched the swinging golfer trophy after a three-way playoff against Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner in 2015. In addition, Rickie Fowler also had a runner-up finish in 2012. That’s two of his three top-25s at the Players Championship; last year he tied for the 13th spot. But it’s his recent form that sparks serious concerns heading to TPC Sawgrass. 

Fowler’s current dip in form doesn’t spark much hope

In his seven outings so far this season, Fowler has failed to break into the top 30. After missing cuts at the American Express and the WM Phoenix Open, the six-time PGA Tour winner settled for T35, T41, and T36 in his last three outings. Fowler’s last victory came at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic in July last year. That’s also his last top-ten finish, stretching to 14 events highlighted by a lone T16 at the Tour Championship. 

This year, Rickie Fowler ranks 155th in the Tour in SG: Total (-1.026) and 164th in SG: Off the Tee (-0.485) 129th in SG: Approach to Green (-0.206), 130th in SG: Putting (-0.270). Last year, the six-time PGA Tour winner was 12th, 77th, 7th, and 48th, respectively. Importantly, last year, Rickie Fowler had two top-tens from his five outings before heading to TPC Sawgrass.

The 35-year-old has slipped up ten spots in the World Ranking from his Rocket Mortgage Classic triumph as well. Only in six of his 24 rounds this season, Fowler was able to break 70. Frequent change of gears hasn’t helped his cause either.

Has Rickie Fowler finally found the right driver for him?

Fowler has been experimenting with his drivers this season but hasn’t been able to find his mojo back. Starting in Hawaii with the Cobra Aerojet LS, the PGAT Pro switched to the Cobra Darkspeed LS. Three events later, he was back in his Aerojet, only to change again at the Cognizant Classic. Fowler picked up Cobra Darkspeed X, taking Cobra representative Ben Schomin’s suggestion. 

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Fowler has tested the Darkspeed X before, finding its spin quite similar to LS.  Also, the six-time PGA Tour winner changed his shaft to Project X Denali Black 70TX. The aim was to improve his driving accuracy. Fowler wanted to get “a tighter window on mishits.” At Bay Hill, the Oklahoma State University alum said, “I was just looking for some stability, something that I was going to be able to hit and trust to hit at the fairway more often. So that was kind of the main idea behind it. It was pretty solid last week. Trying to validate a little bit more.”

Fowler was 114th at the Tour in driving accuracy (58.05%) but was eighth best in Bay Hill (66.07%). It remains to be seen if this is an early sign of a resurgence. Fowler will tee off at 1.40 PM ET on Thursday and 8.15 am ET on Friday at the Players Championship.

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