He’s currently in 92nd place on the FedEx Cup Fall standings! Meaning? The PGA Tour Pro will be exempt to play in the upcoming season’s regular, full-field events, not to mention a spot in the PLAYERS Championship. Then, what about the signature events? Unfortunately enough, Rickie Fowler is not exempt from the elevated tournaments. But such a stroke of bad luck might not affect the 35-year-old, all thanks to him being “a big draw,” according to Billy Horschel.

The 37-year-old was having a conversation with Ryan French in the new episode of the podcast Any Given Monday when he mentioned the same. “I think guys have a schedule,” said the athlete as he disagreed with French, who was of the opinion that the golfers wouldn’t change their schedule too much owing to the signature events. He then went ahead to bring in Fowler’s name to prove his point.

“You look at Ricky Fowler this year,” said the golfer as he spoke on the new episode titled ‘Billy Horschel and Ryan French Debate PGA Tour Changes’. “He didn’t play well in the signature events, and he’s not in the signature events next year.” But that won’t be a problem for the 6-time PGA Tour champ. The reason? “Now, is he going to get as many sponsor exemptions as he wants? Yes, he is. He’s Ricky Fowler. He brings he’s a big draw. So it helps.” 

You can’t possibly disagree with what he said, to be honest. The 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, according to an analytics company named Zoomph, ranked fourth among all events last season when it came to social media engagements with a figure of 5,067,882. It was placed ahead of even three of the four majors. And remember who won the tournament back then? Yes, it was none other than Rickie Fowler.

Impressive, isn’t it? Well, Billy Horschel didn’t stop his reply there. The golfer also brought in another case study, that of Max Homa’s, which pointed out how the golfers on the men’s circuit would change their schedules to play in more tournaments aside from the elevated events. All so he can prepare better for clinching the FedEx Cup.

Not just Rickie Fowler, but Max Homa is also part of Horschel’s case study

“Max Homa didn’t play well in those signature events,” divulged the golfer as he alluded to the fellow PGA Tour Pro’s 2024 season. “Obviously, he was able to get the BMW championship, but he didn’t get the TOUR Championship, which is his goal to have it and also have a chance to win the FedEx Cup.” Much to Homa’s bad luck, he could only finish T33 at the second FedEx Cup playoff event, while only the top 30 were made eligible for the season finale.

The effect of his finish? “So those guys are going to add some events, especially to get off to another slow start,” added the 37-year-old. He did so before highlighting how Homa would probably add some events to his schedule to feel like he prepared enough. “So listen, I don’t think there’s anything, you know, that is going to say, here’s how it’s going to work out,” said Horschel as he tried to contradict Ryan French’s argument. “I just believe that. I think guys are seeing things how it worked last year and they’re going to make some changes based on what they didn’t do this past year.”

What Horschel said does make sense. What’s more, his observation of Rickie Fowler’s situation does hit the spot. But will the two professionals that the golfer mentioned be actually able to dish out a better year just with a change in their schedules? The fans can only wait and watch!