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Rickie Fowler aims for repeat success as PGA stars like Scottie Scheffler absent

Published

6 months ago

June 27, 2024

Rickie Fowler has struggled for form across the 2024 PGA Tour season, but the veteran knows how to win this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic as he enters the event as the defending champion

Rickie Fowler has confirmed he’s aiming for victory at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, with many PGA Tour heavyweights including Scottie Scheffler taking a break.

Following last week’s Traveler’s Championship win – Scheffler’s sixth of the season – the world No. 1 along with other major players chose to take a summer recess before the final milestone event of 2024. The calendar schedule has the Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship, two signature events, flanking either side of the U. S. Open at Pinehurst, implying high-profile players like Scheffler are opting for some downtime.

This creates an opportunity for others to eyeball the prize, including Fowler who snapping his long title-less streak at the Rocket Mortgage Classic a year ago. Despite enduring a challenging phase since, the 35-year-old did secure his second top-20 finish at the Travelers and is eager about revisiting the site of his past glories.

Describing his thoughts on the tournament, Fowler commented: “I feel like it’s a fairly simple, old-school golf course and if you can just get to the green, it becomes a bit of kind of who can make more putts throughout the week. It’s fun, we don’t get to play very many old-school golf courses like this so it’s a treat for a lot of guys who can appreciate kind of old-school golf course architecture.”

A year ago, Fowler triumphed in a playoff that saw him pitted against Collin Morikawa and Canada’s Adam Hadwin after they all tied at 24-under. It marked Fowler’s first victory since February 2019.

This week, the only top 30 players from the Official World Golf Ranking set to compete at Detroit Golf Club are Cameron Young, Tom Kim, and Chris Kirk. Kim is the highest-ranked player, sitting at No. 16 after losing to Scheffler in a post-protest playoff on Sunday.