Rickie Fowler managed to sneak into the FedEx top 50 to extend his season by at least another week after he produced a good display at the FedEx St Jude Championship.
Fowler’s final round of 69 was enough for him to seal a place just inside the top 50 and put his name in the hat for the BMW Championship.
Throughout the week, TPC Southwind provided the players with a tough but fair test and in the end, winning scores of -16 were about right really.
Justin Rose was the man to get the win at Southwind, as he battled J.J. Spaun in a tense multi-hole playoff and held his nerve to win out.
Still, while Southwind did its job in the main, Rickie Fowler has suggested some improvements are needed.
Rickie Fowler says what he thinks of TPC Southwind
For Rickie Fowler, sneaking into the top 50 will have been a big relief.
There are some who believe he has been lucky, given the invites and exemptions he had over the season to some of the big events on the PGA Tour.
With TPC Southwind one of the newer courses on the circuit and improvements made, Fowler was among a number of golfers to get a fresh test.
And speaking to the media afterwards, Fowler admitted that while the course is good, it will take some time for it to be at it’s very best.
“Well, I didn’t have too big of an issue hitting fairways and greens, it was once I got on them, making putts. Going through the early part of the back nine, I had a mud ball on 10 and then I drove it down the middle on 13 and was in a sand divot. I was just trying to make sure, get these on the green,” Fowler said when asked about the course and his performance.
“But with these greens being brand new, they are rolling as good as they can be. There’s still some areas, they need probably a couple good punch-and-sandings, but for being as new as they were, they were very good, and they’re only going to get better.
“Some of the unsettled areas, by the time we come back next year, they’ll be in a really good spot.”
Rickie Fowler says how much pressure he was under at the FedEx St Jude
With Fowler obviously under the spotlight in terms of making that top 50 spot, he was always going to need to produce this week and produce he did.
A T6 finish was excellent really given where his game has been.
Indeed, with so much pressure on his shoulders, Fowler admitted he was very much aware of what was at stake.
“I mean, it was tough, especially at this place where it’s such a fine line. You have to hit the fairway, and it’s a tough little course. You drive it well, you can obviously make birdies. There’s been plenty of good rounds out there this week.
“I felt like it was tough to make putts as the greens kind of dried out and got a little crispier. So yeah, it was just trying to get the ball in the short grass any way we could, which I feel like I did a great job of that on the back nine, just to try and make it as stress-free as possible.
“But I knew basically where I needed to be. I knew I needed to be inside the top 10 and I knew there was a chance that it could come down to my playing partner, Kirky and I. Not that we were necessarily playing a head-to-head match. We both wanted to play better than we did.
“Unfortunate to see that he’s birdied the last. I don’t think he’ll do it. But I think we were both feeling it out there. Like I said, after the front nine and not being off to the start that I wanted, had to kind of reprioritize where we were at, I wasn’t in a position necessarily to go win, but hey, let’s see if we can still keep ourselves alive and get a tee time next week.
“Well, being that I got a handful of spots this year, which I’m incredibly grateful for, unfortunately I really didn’t take advantage of many of those opportunities up until Jack’s event. Didn’t play that well in any of them. Those elevated fields and maybe some more points, I didn’t really get them.
But it was great to have a tee time in them this year, and didn’t really want to bank on that for next year. Yeah, nice to be in a position where we’ll be able to be back in those and not have to write notes and calls and ask for favours.”
With the BMW to come and the Ryder Cup still having places up for grabs, Fowler will be hoping for a big finish to his year.
If he does that, then he might just turn Keegan Bradley’s head.
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