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Rickie Fowler’s Fall Strategy: Get Leg Up on FedEx Points

By Kathlene Bissell

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO - NOVEMBER 08: Rickie Fowler of the United States walks on the 16th green during the first round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic at El Camaleon Mayakoba Golf Course on November 08, 2018 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO - NOVEMBER 08: Rickie Fowler of the United States walks on the 16th green during the first round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic at El Camaleon Mayakoba Golf Course on November 08, 2018 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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Last season at Mayakoba, Rickie Fowler finished second, and this time around, he’s hoping to improve one place, get the victory and earn 500 FedEx points.  He’s coming into the tournament after firing a final round 63 and finishing 4th at the Shriners Hospital for Children event in Las Vegas.

Rickie Fowler likes getting back to humidity and coastal golf which is similar to what he has at home in South Florida. He’s hoping it starts off his FedEx chase on a good note.

“I was happy with the performance last week,” he said to media prior to the start of Mayakoba. “I wish it was a little bit better on Saturday to where I would have had a legitimate shot going into Sunday, but all in all, I hadn’t played a whole lot since the Ryder Cup.”

In fact, he took five weeks off from golf, during which he worked out, took some vacation time and rested up after a long 2018 season.  Then he entered the Las Vegas event, which makes sense since his coach, Butch Harmon, is headquartered there.

“I’m definitely glad to be back to kind of sea level where the ball goes the distance we’re used to,” he said. “In Vegas it was adjusting to altitude and how much the wind was affecting it or not affecting it, so there’s a little more thinking involved out there.”

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The biggest challenge in seaside locations is the wind.  But there are no altitude computations.

“You have to control your ball flight when it does get windy,” he noted, “but it’s not as much of — you’re not trying to calculate
or adjust yardages based on altitude. The ocean’s right there, so we’re at sea level.”

Playing full of confidence, Rickie Fowler doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be among the leaders by the weekend. However, he did note the number of quality new players.

“I think everyone’s seen how deep the PGA Tour is. It’s no gimme that if you’re a top-10 or top-20 player that you should be in contention on Sunday,” he added. “If we play well, we should be there, but the depth of these fields are pretty amazing.”

In recent weeks, newcomer Cameron Champ found the victory circle, as did Kevin Tway, son of former PGA Champion Bob Tway, their firsts. Other events in the new season have been won by Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Marc Leishman and Bryson DeChambeau. All but the winner of  the Sanderson Farms and WGC-HSBC received 500 FedEx points for their victories, equal to events played after January. The winner of Sanderson Farms, which is an opposite field event to the WGC-HSBC, earns just 300 points, and the WGC event is worth 550, 50 points more than regular season PGA Tour tournaments.

Fowler is one of several top players who have chosen the strategy of playing in the fall season to get some FedEx points prior to January.

“I don’t necessarily think it gives you a head start now. I think it’s more so you don’t go into January behind the eight-ball,” he explained.  “You might be playing catch-up the first few months, west coast and then Florida. So I think with me playing last week, this week, really trying to make them count, that way I have less work to do at the start of the calendar year.”

His reasoning makes sense because this season has a new challenge in that there will be fewer tournaments played before getting to the FedEx Playoffs.  Next season, approximately four more events will be added to in the month of September because the new PGA Tour calendar ends Labor Day.

“There’s been a couple times where I’ve played one ( fall) event and had a decent event,” Fowler recalled. “I think one year I played the WGC in China, finished sixth, and then in January I started somewhere around 70th in FedExCup points.”

dark. Next. Mayakoba Top Ten Power Rankings

After Shriners Hospital, Rickie Fowler is in 38th place with 115 points.  That’s certainly better than starting January at zero.

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