Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson building for 2018 at Kapalua
Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson are not shy about their major ambitions for 2018. The Tournament of Champions isn’t the Masters, but they’ll use every chance they can to build a game for the biggest stages.
Typically, no one who comes to the Sentry Tournament of Champions is expecting marvelous things from his game. Usually, golfers are shaking off a couple weeks or even a couple months of rust. But sometimes good things happen, as they did for Justin Thomas last year.
No matter who it is, golfers usually come to Hawaii with a different plan. Rickie Fowler, for instance, is after a major.
“I think we did a good job last year of putting myself in contention multiple times, but there needs to be some better weekends to make sure that we’re on top come Sunday afternoon,” he said in a pre-tournament interview about his performance in 2018.
He’s brave to say that, but he talks like he plays. He’s a no-guts, no glory kind of golfer, hitting shots he has to, like the ones coming down the stretch and in the playoff when he won at The Players. He was T5 at the U.S. Open and T5 at the PGA last year.
More recently Fowler was runner-up at the tournament in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, and he won the Hero World Challenge.
“Finally getting to have JT and Jordan congratulate me at the Hero, felt good. I need to do that some more. Make them wait around,” he quipped.
While the OHL Classic counts as a PGA Tour event, the Hero World Challenge is more for bragging rights and some world ranking points. Still, games have been moved forward on this kind of success and Fowler knows that. Just look at Jordan Spieth in 2015. He won the Australian Open and Hero World Challenge and went on to win the Valspar, The Masters, the U.S. Open and the John Deere. Then, he wrapped it all up by bringing home the Tour Championship.
"“I feel like can kind of build off of playing well through some down time and not necessarily putting a lot of time into the golf game,” he said. “So, coming into the year, playing here and really getting back into the swing of things, if we can build off of how well we were playing and tighten things up and make it even better, I think it can be a really good year.”"
When it comes to stats, Fowler says they are good measuring sticks. They also show him what he needs to work on the most.
"“Putting’s finally back to what I’m used to and where it should be. And bunker play has probably been one of my biggest improvements over the last few years,” he said. “One of the areas I feel like we have seen that can use some of the most improvement could be around a 100 to 150 yards, wedges to pitching wedge, 9-iron, an area that I’m not necessarily bad at, but statistically I can be better against — when you look at the other guys on Tour.”"
Last year, he thinks, was statistically one of his best. He was second in putting, fourth in putting average, third in one putts, and fifth in total putting. He was 16th in strokes gained tee-to-green, and 52nd in driving accuracy, hitting almost 64 percent of fairways. He was 21st in longest drives. He was first in sand saves.
In approaches, he was ninth from 100-125 yards, but 56th from 125 to 150 yards. He was 87th from 50-75 yards, but only had that distance 12 times all year.
“If there’s a weak part, that’s ultimately going to hurt you when it comes down to Sunday or the weekend or being in contention. So, if we can check all those boxes, that will ultimately help Saturday and Sunday,” he added.
Dustin Johnson working to capture 2017’s early-season magic again
Dustin Johnson doesn’t have to worry about his first major anymore. He’s now working on his second and, really, everyone expects at least a third. With his game improving every season, and with his power and ability to hit a lot of balls to their desired destination, he’s the man to watch, so long as he stays off stairs while he’s sock-footed. For a while last spring, Johnson actually looked unstoppable.
Right now, he’s looking to regain last year’s early-year, winning form.
"“Winning in L.A. and then Mexico and Match Play, all three starts in a row, obviously playing probably the best golf of my career. And it wasn’t like they were back-to-back weeks, there was a lot of space in between, so I really felt like I had my game really dialed in,” Johnson said before the start of the Sentry."
He said it took five months to recover from the fall last April, but his swing has recovered and so has the shot-pattern.
"“I’m hitting the shots, they’ve got the right patterns, and I’m hitting the shots that I’m seeing,” he explained in golf speak. “It’s just more my cut’s starting to come back where I’m hitting it with irons and with the driver. Where every shot’s starting to cut again. So that’s pretty much it. Just need a little more practice, need to really work on the wedges here the next few weeks to get ready for the big part of the season.”More from Pro Golf NowGolf Rumors: LIV set to sign Masters Champion in stunning dealFantasy Golf: Grant Thornton Invitational DFS Player SelectionsBrutal return leaves Will Zalatoris looking towards 2024Stars You Know at World Champions Cup Starts Thursday at ConcessionFantasy Golf: An Early Look at the 2024 Masters Tournament"
In the last few seasons, his wedge game has made the difference, as he’s said previously. The truth is, his long game is very good, and so it was probably hard to convince him that his short game needed work until fairly recently. Now, he’s after it.
Last year he was ninth in greens in regulation, hitting the putting surface nearly 70 percent of the time. But the wedge practice he had done paid off as he was 13th at 125-150 yards, 19th at 100-125 yards, 21st at 75-100 yards. Amazingly, pointing out his skill with the long game, he was second at 175-200 yards.
"“I don’t do really too many outcome goals, just more process,” he added about his approach to game improvement. “Obviously, improve wedge play, I need to improve my bunker play, get a little bit better with putting. But as far as outcome goals, I just want to, I feel like if I do the right things then the outcome is going to be there and I’m going to achieve all the goals that I want to.”"
He was correct about his sand play needing help. He was 165th in sand saves and Jordan Spieth, as good as he is, was 33rd. As mentioned earlier, Fowler was No. 1.
Next: Jordan Spieth 'ready for anything' in 2018
So, as we finish up the first week of 2018, we’ll see whose game is least rusty, who practiced over the break and maybe who is poised to have a great season.