It pays to be popular on the PGA Tour. Just ask Rickie Fowler.
A week ahead of the 2025 PGA Championship, the PGA of America extended a special invite to Fowler even though he failed to qualify for the tournament himself.
There are 13 different ways players can automatically qualify for the season's second major, including winning a recent major championship or PGA Tour event, recording a strong finish in a recent PGA Championship, and earning enough PGA Championship Points in the last year. Fowler failed to hit any of the 13 categories.
The closest he got was the criterion that states: Playing members of the last-named U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams (2023) provided they remain within the top 100 on the Official World Golf Rankings.
Fowler was indeed on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2023, although his performance was easy to forget. The veteran played in just two matches and went 0-2-0, finishing the week as the only American who failed to record at least a half-point.
Even though Fowler played in Rome two years ago, he failed to satisfy the second half of that criterion. As of the official invite, Fowler was ranked 125th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
He was given a spot in the field over Lee Hodges (101), who has six top-16 finishes in his last 13 starts, and 11 other players ranked ahead of him outside the top 100.
At least Hodges has some strong recent form to hang his hat on. Fowler, on the other hand, has just one top-20 finish in nine starts this year. He's finished solo 68th (in a 72-man field), T30, T52, and solo 71st in his last four starts. Shockingly, Fowler has notched just one finish better than T16 in 39 starts since his last win at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Sure, fans will be more excited to watch Fowler and his flashy garb stroll down the fairways at Quail Hollow Club than any other player in this range.
But major championships shouldn't be handing out freebies to players based on popularity alone. Hopefully, the 36-year-old can justify his special invitation with a strong week.