Rickie Fowler is one of the biggest names set to not be in the field for The Masters this week, with the 36-year-old having a difficult time on the PGA Tour.
It has been a turbulent few years for Rickie Fowler. The 2024 season marked the first time since 2019 that he had teed it up at all four major championships, with his trip to Augusta National ending in finishing tied for 30th.
Fowler has finished second at The Masters – losing by one to Patrick Reed – while he has three top 10s across his career. He has also made the cut in 10 of his 11 appearances at the first major of the year.
And it seems that one of the big strengths Fowler has had at Augusta National over the years is on the greens.
Rickie Fowler explains the key to putting well at Augusta National
While Augusta’s greens do not have to be the most challenging for the very best players in the game, they do have a way of tripping up anyone who is not completely on it with their approach play. Falling the wrong side of one of the numerous bumps and slopes can prove to be a big problem.
And speaking on Son of a Butch with Claude Harmon, Fowler explained what he believes to be the key to putting successfully on the greens at Augusta.
“You have to be able to visualise it. With aimpoint stuff and today’s green reading, aimpoint, you can get pretty good there. But I feel like having creativity and imagination only helps you on those greens. I had one of my best putting rounds there, I can’t remember which year, but I doubled one and I doubled 10, shot 68 with 21 putts. It was just one of those days, it was a trash can, I just filled it up,” he said.
“I would say a big majority of that is speed, because as you know, with the movement and it’s not like you get perfect putts, there’s just always something going on, you can play a putt in so many different spots, but you have to have the speed to match it to that, so it’s picking your read but then committing to what that speed is. So speed control is probably one of the biggest things there.”
What Rickie Fowler learned from his years of playing at The Masters
As mentioned, Fowler came closest to winning the green jacket back in 2018, when he finished one shot behind Reed. He played remarkably well to bring himself back into contention.
Fowler went into the weekend seven shots back. However, a 65 on Saturday brought him right into the mix with 18 holes to play. And following that round, he explained what he had learned about playing Augusta since his debut.
“Well, like I talked about a little bit earlier, not playing too defensive but also not playing too aggressive; when the right times are to kind of try and make something happen. That’s not necessarily going to be on the front nine tomorrow. Sticking to what Joe and I have been doing, is just trying to go out and one shot at a time, hit our spots, hit our lines, hit our yardages and really commit to the shot that we’re currently hitting at that time,” he said.
“That’s more of a tee‑to‑green thing. I take care of most everything on the greens. Every once in a while, I’ll call him in for a read. But if we’re able to take care of tee‑to‑green, fairways, greens; give me that putter, and we’ll go have some fun.”
Fowler is still searching to rediscover that level of quality within his game. But he will surely get another shot at winning The Masters in the coming years, even if he is having to watch from afar this time around.
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