RICKIE FOWLER: HIT MORE GREENS
BY PGA TOUR WINNER RICKIE FOWLER
The American superstar is one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour. Here, he explains his relationship with Butch Harmon and reveals his approach play secrets to help you find more greens.
The American superstar reveals his approach play secrets
From growing up on his local driving range in California to becoming one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour, Rickie Fowler puts a lot of his more recent success down to working with coach Butch Harmon for the past four years.
Since Fowler hired Harmon in 2014, the 29-year-old American has won six tournaments across both European and PGA Tours, including his victory at the Players in 2015 – but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
In 2014 Fowler finished in the top five of each of the four Majors, but by the end of 2016 he had hadn’t managed better than T33 in all four Major-starts, and failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup play-os – so Harmon told him he needed to take his golf more seriously.
“We had a big conversation at the end of the year last year, and he didn’t like it,” Butch told Sky Sports.“I said, ‘You gotta decide are you going to be a Kardashian or are you going to be a golf pro?” You’re the king of social media, you’re all over these Snapchats and all these things. You need to reach down and grab your ears and get your head out of your you know what and get back to work, get your body in shape. He’s got a trainer he works out tremendously with and he’s worked unbelievable with his golf swing. He’s gone back to winning tournaments again – get rid of those Kardashians.”
Since then, Fowler has refocused and with two victories and eight other top five finishes in 2017 he was ranked in the top five on the PGA Tour for scoring average, total driving, strokes gained and sand saves.
We caught up with Rickie at the 2017 Scottish Open at Dundonald Links, where he told us that working on the fundamentals and staying consistent in practice is the key to accuracy on the course. You have some of the best performance stats on the PGA Tour, what do you think has helped you become a much more accurate and consistent player? I’ve been playing well this year,
everything has been trending in the right direction. I feel like I’ve done a really good job of continuing to work on the little things and the fundamentals, making sure that I’m not too far o of where I want to be swing wise, so Butch and I are always staying on top of that to make sure it’s in the right spot and right tempo. His son Claude helps me out a bit, too, and then I’ve got my caddie Joe, who has a great eye, so I feel like I’ve got a great group of people who help keep me in line. You have one of the best scoring averages on the PGA Tour; is there a secret to how you practise? Right now, I really don’t spend a whole lot of time on the range. I much prefer spending my time playing and putting myself in real situations. If I find something that’s feeling a little bit o, or needs work, or if I’m not playing well, I’ll work on that either after the round or the next day for 30 minutes to an hour. It’s not about the amount of time you put in. It’s the quality of it. And if something is a bit o , how do you go about sorting that? Butch and I typically go right back to basics with everything and then try to come up with the answer. Alignment, posture, swing length and contact will take care of a lot. What do you work on a lot? Tempo, timing. Nothing ruins your timing like bringing the club back too far and too fast. To keep my backswing nice and compact, I try to feel width –that my hands are far away from my body. Wide swings also tend to be shorter and smoother. How do you stay consistent when you’re on the course and not feeling on your A-game? I don’t try and change much, I usually just try to adjust and let it happen. The more I force it, the more it can all go wrong so I really just try not to force it then I’ll go and work on it after the round. Does where you are on the leaderboard determine how aggressive you are? Yes, I definitely play the course dierently depending on where I am on the leaderboard. Depending on the situation, there are times where your position allows you to play a course or a hole more aggressively. How do you approach strategy on the course and decide those percentage plays into greens? For me, distance is a huge advantage out there, but being in the short grass is key. There are definitely
times I will take less club o the tee to make sure I’m in the fairway, to avoid hazards, but sometimes the gamble is worth it to push it a bit further up so then I’ll go for it. I’d never want to be too far back, though. Do you change strategy when you play di erent courses? A little bit. When I play over here on links courses I really just try to avoid bunkers o the tee, as it can be close to being a one-shot penalty. I’ll try to play to a wider part of the fairway or try to take out the hazards. Sometimes you might have a harder or longer shot into greens, but the last place you want to be is in the bunker o the tee. You were ranked first for sand saves on the PGA Tour in 2017; what is your key to getting it close from the bunker? I’ve put in a lot of work with Butch over the last few years. There are a handful of keys that I have, like making sure I have a really solid stance. I think everyone has a bit of a dierent technique, but it all comes down to the main fundamentals, confidence and just really working at it. To help amateurs improve their accuracy, what would you suggest? Getting out there and playing is key. But if they are looking for accuracy, they’ve got to practise from inside 150 yards. That’s where they tend to lose shots (and that’s where stats guru Mark Broadie says we lose shots; see page 78). Is there a di erent preparation for you mentally for Majors, or is it just the same process? I think a lot of guys possibly make it dierent. But myself and my team try to make it as normal as another event. I feel like guys will spend some more time on the golf course or more time than they would at a normal Tour event. So I’ve gone to trying to play nine holes Monday, nine holes Tuesday and 18 holes Wednesday. Just like I would a normal event; you play a pro-am Wednesday and lead into the golf tournament. For me, getting potentially, nine, nine, 18, it gives me a chance to figure out what I want to do on the golf course and not worry about my swing or what I need to work on there. You’ve won the Scottish Open and finished second in the Open, so why do you think your game suits links golf so much? I grew up on my local driving range at home and it was just a flat piece of land with some built-up mounds and flag stuck in the middle. I had to use my imagination and just hit shots, since there wasn’t really much to aim at; it’s not like there were trees out there or bunkers to try and hit shots to pins or anything like that. Then typically the wind would blow a little in the afternoon, so I learned how to play in that, too.