Fowler needs to make most of his gifts
Generous invites offer chance to change fortunes; Hughes frees putter; Stray Shots
Rickie Fowler’s standing with fans leads to wealth of opportunities (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
Rickie Fowler is the first to admit that he’s not having a great season so far on the PGA Tour. And yet, the popular but underachieving player received an invitation to play in the PGA Championship next week after getting a generous sponsor exemption into this week’s signature Truist Championship.
The PGA of America has a lot of leeway with its invites — it typically has more than 30 after exemptions to hand out as it sees fit — but giving one to the No. 125 player in the Official World Golf Ranking who has no finish better than 18th this year?
Fowler, 36 and a six-time PGA Tour winner, is aware of the chatter.
“The negative stuff, I would say, kind of helps me in a way because it fuels me to kind of go out and prove people wrong,” Fowler said after taking advantage of his sponsor’s entry by opening the Truist Championship with a 7-under 63 to trail leader Keith Mitchell by two shots. “I feel like there was something prior to at the 2015 Players (when a survey) said I was the most overrated player, and that worked out all right that week.”
That 2015 Players victory, seen as a “major” breakthrough, was a long time ago. Fowler has just four wins in the decade since and has not been eligible for seven of the last 17 major championships contested.
During that time, he posted a tie for fifth at the 2023 U.S. Open — where he matched the major championship scoring record of 62 in the first round at Los Angeles Country Club North. But the Masters runner-up in 2017 has qualified to play Augusta only once (2024) in the last five years.
He’s fortunate he’s in next week’s event at Quail Hollow — where he finished T5 in the 2017 PGA. His invite owes more to his popularity than his play.
Then again, he’s lucky to be in this week’s signature event at Philadelphia Cricket Club, too. It’s the fourth sponsor’s invite he’s received so far out of the five signature events for which he could have received one and he’s not exactly taken advantage. So far, Fowler has tied for 53rd at Pebble Beach, tied for 39th at the Genesis Invitational and finished 68th (out of 72 players) at the RBC Heritage.
The only tournament he didn’t get one for — and one for which he would have had a strong case given his past history — was the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“You obviously want to come out and prove yourself,” Fowler said. “I haven’t been playing all that well last year and the start of this year. It hasn’t been very far off. …
“For the tournaments to give me the opportunity to come play — a number of exemptions this year, which I’m very, very happy for and appreciate it from the sponsors and the tournament directors. You want to come out and play well. So off to a good start and looking forward to keeping it rolling.”
Fowler could use a good week. He’s currently 125th in the FedEx Cup standings at a time when there is more urgency. There’s still a long way to go in the season, but Fowler is not exempt for the U.S. Open and the PGA Tour has reduced the number of full exemptions for 2026 to the top 100.
His victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in 2023 extends his full membership through this year.
Mackenzie Hughes finds a putting fix in opposite-event PGA tune-up (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
Can putting shift elevate Hughes?
By Alex Miceli
Canadian Mackenzie Hughes missed out on playing in this week’s Truist Championship outside of Philadelphia when he missed the cut at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Instead, Hughes drove the three hours from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to play in the opposite-field event, hoping to prepare for next week’s PGA Championship.
Hughes, who has been a good putter for most of his career, has found his putting process to be woefully inadequate, even with a 10th-place finish in Houston and a T3 at the RBC Heritage.
Hughes has been using the line on the ball and trying to dial it in for the last couple of weeks, but it hasn’t worked as well as he hoped.
So, Hughes decided to use a different, more freeing process this week in Myrtle Beach. After shooting an 8-under 63 in Thursday’s opening round at the Dunes Club, the new emancipating process seems to be working.
“Just trying to kind of free myself up a little bit and also kind of get more into my reactionary putting, like trust my instincts a little bit more,” Hughes said of the new process. “Like no line, trying to be a little more reactive, a little more faster tempo on the greens as far as my routine goes.”
In the past, Hughes used the process of looking-and-shooting, but abandoned it for the more conventional one.
Hughes believes he would have won if he had putted like he did on Thursday in Myrtle Beach at either Harbor Town or Houston.
“I just felt like in those tournaments I was kind of handcuffing myself a little bit by trying to be a little bit too perfect, trying to get the line just right, trying to read it just perfectly,” Hughes said. “Today, I had the blank side of the ball up — no practice stroke. Just kind of went in there and hit it. You know, it’s a bit like putting like a kid, I guess.”
The last time Hughes reverted to the look-shoot process was at RSM, where he putted unbelievably and finished in second thanks to a third-round 60.
But for some reason, he would return to the more restrained putting process.
Now, he believes the evidence is clear.
“We’re a strange bunch, so obviously things can only be so good, and then you’ve got to change things after a while,” Hughes said. “Yeah, talking to my mental-game guy, this is probably where I should be more often is just — I’m a really good putter, and sometimes I think I take some of that away by trying to be too perfect.”
Stray Shots: Scheff cooks, Spieth simmers
By Peter Kaufman
1. The Byron Nelson. The CJ Cup event near Dallas was a laugher, with Scottie Scheffler boat-racing a less-than-marquee field wire to wire. He did not let the lack of competition deter him from firing the lowest 72-hole score in PGA Tour history, however. His 31-under 253 was good for an eight-shot win over Eric Van Rooyen.