So the six-time PGA Tour winner already has some practical experience with what the USGA and R&A might be getting ready to do. Citing industry sources, Golf Digest reported Friday that golf’s governing bodies are expected to announce next week a rule change that would universally roll back golf ball distances. The expected rule change comes after a three-year “Notice and Comment” period with equipment manufacturers and other golf organisations, including the PGA Tour.

It is expected that a new standard for testing the conformity of golf balls would be introduced for elite players and competitions in 2028 and then for recreational players in 2030.

“Srixon made whatever the USGA was saying, and it was 40, 50 yards [shorter] with my driver,” Bradley, 37, said Saturday at the Hero World Challenge. “I was a club or two shorter. I think that the USGA … everything that they do is reactionary. They don’t think of a solution. They just think we’re going to affect a hundred percent of the population that plays golf. For the amateur world to hit the ball shorter is monstrous. I can’t think of anything more stupid than that. I don’t think it’s very smart at all, especially when golf’s growing in popularity literally coming out of COVID.”

Among players who were asked about the potential rule change at the Hero World Challenge, no one thought a universal roll back was a good idea. And only tournament host Tiger Woods thinks it would be the right thing to do in the professional game. He and World No. 2 Rory McIlroy have been the biggest proponents of reigning in the ball at the elite level.

“We’ve been hammering the ball needs to slow down,” Woods, 47, said after a third-round one-under 71 at Albany, “but it has kept speeding up my entire time on tour and here we are. I’ve always been for bifurcation. I’ve always said that. Just like wood bats and metal bats [in baseball].”

On Sunday morning, Rory McIlroy took to X (formerly Twitter) with a passionate case for the rollback and against its critics.

I don’t understand the anger about the golf ball roll back. It will make no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and puts golf back on a path of sustainability. It will also help bring back certain skills in the pro game that have been eradicated over the past 2 decades.…

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) December 3, 2023

Former U.S. Open champion Justin Rose was surprised to hear that the governing bodies were considering an across-the-board change for amateurs as well as professionals.

“I think the way I saw it going was the tour doing one thing [with a model local rule] and maybe major championships doing another. And that puts a lot of pressure on the tour,” Rose, 43, of England, said. “Now if recreational golf is rolling back, too, it doesn’t make sense for the tour to stay where we were. Because I think if the amateurs were going to continue to stay where they were, the tour, were going to say, ‘OK, we’re going to stay where we are because we want the fan to be able to relate to the tour player.’ That made sense to me. And then obviously if there was a ball for a major championship then so be it, we’d have to learn how to adapt. So that’s the way I would’ve hedged it going. Now it’s even a weirder situation. The amateurs are playing the ball that’s slower than what we’re playing on tour. That doesn’t feel right either.”

Rickie Fowler is not a fan of the ruling bodies making any change to the ball at any level. “There are other ways of going about this,” he said, adding that they are “20 years too late” on the issue.

But he is especially opposed to a shorter ball for recreational players. “To take the game and knock it back when it’s in the best position it’s ever been in, I don’t want to see it as the golf ball being necessarily the right move,” Fowler added. “I don’t see how when we’re at the best place the game has ever been. ‘Oh, you love the game? Yeah. Hey, thanks for joining us over COVID. Now we’re going to make you hit it 20 yards shorter. Have fun.’ I understand both sides. But looking at it as far as the game and everyone talks about growing the game, I think it’s going to be a huge step back.”

Bradley, who already had to adjust his game to a change in equipment rules several years ago when the governing bodies prohibiting an anchored putting stroke, wonders how he and his peers will be forced to adjust their games further.

“I don’t know what the ramifications are going to be with the ball—what they’re going to do, what direction they going to go,” he said. “It would have to be a complete overhaul of the equipment that I use, the shafts that I use. Yeah, I mean the amount of change that’s happened just in the course of my career is insane.

“I think we constantly get penalised for mistakes they [USGA and R&A] make. Whether if they let the ball go too far, that’s not our problem. They [are doing this] to punish not only the professional golfers, but the world of golf for something that they screwed up on. I really think it’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of.”

Image: David Cannon

The post PGA Tour players torch governing bodies on golf ball rollback; Keegan Bradley calls it ‘stupid’ and ‘monstrous’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The streaming service is copying the success of “The Match” celebrity series by fusing two of its programmes — the golf-centric “Full Swing” and F1 series “Drive to Survive” — for a made-for-TV (or second-screen) spectacle. “The Netflix Cup” will be the streamer’s first live sporting event, pitting the aforementioned golfers with four drivers in a match play tournament at the Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas.

The Wynn — a Tom Fazio design in Nevada — has previously hosted three of the last four iterations of“The Match.”

“The PGA Tour is proud to participate in this significant milestone for Netflix and we look forward to showcasing our sport’s professional athletes to a live global audience,” said Norb Gambuzza, PGA Tour senior vice president of media and gaming. “New and diverse audiences have come to know more about both our sports and their athletes through ‘Full Swing’ and ‘Drive to Survive’, and we are excited to team up with Netflix, Formula 1 and the Las Vegas Grand Prix on this exciting concept.”

Netflix released the first season of “Full Swing” — a docudrama that takes viewers behind the scenes of professional golfers’ lives on and off the course — this past February. According to the tour, data indicates the show had a significant impact on TV ratings this past season. “Full Swing” was available in 190 countries and 32 languages and it reached Netflix Top 10 worldwide, including No. 2 in the US and UK, and No. 1 in Ireland.

The event will air on Tuesday, November 14.

Main image: Andrew Redington

The post Rickie, Max, JT and Collin to star in Netflix’s first live golf match appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The biennial match is filled with territorial tension, drama and plenty of testy three-footers that most hackers just scoop up in their normal weekend games. But when there’s actually something on the line, golfers must wait for a two-word phrase that’s more delightful to the ears than anything Shakespeare ever penned: “That’s good.”

Through the years, these gimmes—or perceived gimmes—have created some memorable moments in the Ryder Cup, and the 2023 event was no different. The Europeans extended a three-decade-plus home winning streak on a three-footer that didn’t even have to be struck.

Tommy Fleetwood wins the 16th hole to go 2UP vs. Rickie Fowler and @RyderCupEurope is on the cusp of victory. #TeamEurope

?: @NBC and @peacock | #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/C6nDnOOrsb

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) October 1, 2023

The moment @TommyFleetwood1 secured the half point that guarantees we win the Ryder Cup ?#TeamEurope | #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/45MHGfK516

— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) October 1, 2023

This time, Tommy Fleetwood was the beneficiary of a generous concession from Rickie Fowler that clinched the cup for Team Europe on Sunday at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club. OK, so technically, it was listed at two feet, eight inches, and it’s a putt that Fleetwood normally makes without thinking. But with the entire Ryder Cup on the line? Well, Paul Azinger among others would have liked to see Tommy make it.

It’s also very likely Europe, which wound up winning 16.5 to 11.5, would have walked away with the cup anyway. Still, this one will go down in Ryder Cup lore. And although this example nor anything else has quite reached the level of controversy of the 2015 Solheim Cup’s “Gimmegate” involving Suzann Pettersen, there have been some awkward situations. Here are five others that still stand out years—and, in some cases, decades—later.

1. Jack Nicklaus vs. Tony Jacklin (1969)

Uncredited

Of course, any list involving concessions has to start with THE Concession that ended the 1969 Ryder Cup in a tie. It was Nicklaus who magnanimously gave Jacklin a two-footer on the final hole to halve the match, a move that instantly put the American in the Sportsmanship Hall of Fame (if there was such a thing). So why is this controversial? Because many of Nicklaus’ teammates were NOT happy about the Golden Bear getting all warm and fuzzy in the heat of battle—especially during what had been a particularly testy event. While the US retained the Ryder Cup with a 16-16 tie, the move prevented the squad from potentially winning that year’s matches outright—and no one was more upset than US captain Sam Snead. “When it happened, all the boys thought it was ridiculous to give him that putt,” Snead famously said. “We went over there to win, not to be good ol’ boys.”

2. Nick Faldo vs. Paul Azinger (1993)

David Cannon

Azinger is arguably the biggest Ryder Cup pest—and certainly one of the event’s biggest hotheads—but in this case, he seems to have a good, um, case. With the Americans already guaranteed to retain the Cup, Faldo convinced Zinger to give him a five-foot putt on 18 in what had been a tremendous singles match highlighted by a hole-in-one by the Brit on No. 14. Azinger contends Faldo incorrectly claimed the US had also won outright. “I can’t tell you how irritating that was,” said Azinger, who found out from teammate Davis Love III that the competition was still tied. Moments later, Faldo also didn’t return the favour for Azinger’s final par putt. Azinger holed the putt then said after that giving it to him “would have been the gracious gesture.” Speaking of gracious gestures …

3. Payne Stewart vs. Colin Montgomerie (1999)

Craig Jones

With the final Sunday singles match in a similar situation six years later after the US had wrapped up a dramatic comeback victory at Brookline, Stewart conceded a tied match to Montgomerie with both putting for birdie on the 18th green. It was a classy move that received almost as much praise as Stewart’s “You’re going to be a dad” talk to Phil Mickelson after beating him at Pinehurst earlier that year to win the US Open. And it meant even more to Monty due to the heckling he had received from the American crowds all day. “He’d had enough, I’d had enough, and he picked my ball up at the last,” Montgomerie said. “I’ll never forget that. Not all the memories [from Brookline] are fond. But that match I will always think of with fond memories, of that game with him.” Sadly, it would be one of Stewart’s last acts on a golf course of any kind as he died in a plane crash a month later.

RELATED: Europe closes out 16½-11½ win at Marco Simone

4. Tiger Woods vs. Francesco Molinari (2012)

Jamie Squire

Woods’ Ryder Cup record has been greatly criticised through the years, but he might have been viewed differently had he been given a chance to play the hero at Medinah. Playing Sunday singles against Molinari it appeared the outcome of the entire match between the US and Europe might come down to this final duel until a series of things broke Europe’s way, including Martin Kaymer delivering a clutch Cup-winning putt. Molinari could have pulled a Payne Stewart with this match not winding up deciding who would win the Cup, but he decided to press on, hoping to win the event outright for Europe. Then he could have pulled a Jack Nicklaus when Woods’ birdie chip lipped out to about four feet, but he didn’t, even with the European fans at Medinah starting the celebrations early and causing disturbances. After Woods missed for par, he conceded Molinari’s putt of a similar length to halve the match and give Europe a 14½-13½ victory.

5. Great Britain vs. Steel Shafts? (1929)

And finally, we’ll stretch the definition of “concession” to include Europe not making one to the U.S. in regard to their equipment for the second-ever Ryder Cup. You see, the Americans arrived at Moortown Golf Club in England with steel-shafted clubs that were already approved for play by the USGA. But because the R&A hadn’t ruled them legal yet, Europe refused to let the Americans use them. The Americans wound up losing 7-5, and the R&A wound up allowing steel shafts the following year.

Main Image: Andrew Redington

The post Rickie Fowler adds his name to the most controversial concessions (and non-concessions) in Ryder Cup history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Fowler will be headed to Rome after shooting a (really) low score himself, according to Butch Harmon. The legendary swing coach shared that Fowler made 14 birdies and four pars in a Ryder Cup tune-up at Medalist Golf Club. With Medalist playing as a par 72, that would be a 58 also. There’s just one small twist.

Harmon says Fowler played the “way forward tees” that he and his brother, Craig, play. If that means the “Gold” tees there, then that’s just under 6,000 yards. So not exactly the same test Fowler and Team USA will face at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club next week.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Coup43 (@coup4359)

Still, that’s pretty impressive scoring. And it can’t hurt the confidence level as he heads into a fifth career Ryder Cup.

Also, it’s not like Rickie can’t rack up birdies on much longer and tougher set-ups. The guy made a US Open record 10 of them during the first round this year at Los Angeles Country Club. And he reportedly shares the course record at Medalist (62 from the back tees) with Tiger Woods. No big deal.

Anyway, nice round, Rick. Now excuse us as we head to the front tees this weekend.

Main image: Butch Harmon Instagram

The post Butch Harmon says Rickie Fowler made 14 birdies* in Ryder Cup tune-up (*With one small twist) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Outside of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, it’s likely no current golfer has reached the heights of popularity that Rickie Fowler has. Heck, you just have to look at the sea of orange-clad kids in the galleries when the PGA Tour star plays to tell that. But actual analytics from this season prove just how much golf fans still love him.

Fowler’s golf game had fallen off the past couple years, but a bounce-back 2022-2023 campaign saw him end a long winless drought and earn a spot back on Team USA for the upcoming Ryder Cup. Rickie’s Rocket Mortgage Classic victory in July — and his reaction in the immediate aftermath — was one of the most memorable moments of the year. But it was also one of the biggest moments as ranked by total social media engagements.

In fact, according to Zoomph, an analytics company, that tournament ranked No. 4 among all PGA Tour events this season, and ahead of three major championships. That’s right, the Rocket Mortgage Classic. See for yourself:

All season long @PGATOUR social media shared major wins, viral moments and big stories from the golf course.

Ranked by total engagements, these were the Top 10 tournaments of the 2022/23 #PGATOUR schedule on social pic.twitter.com/khHCcOlzla

— Zoomph (@Zoomph) August 30, 2023

It’s no surprise that the Masters leads the way. Neither is the Genesis Invitational, where Tiger Woods served as host and played four rounds for the only time all year, being No. 2. Or the Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s flagship event, being No. 3. But again, no offence to the Rocket Mortgage Classic, but the Rocket Mortgage Classic is No. 4? That’s some serious star power provided by Rickie.

And that likely means some serious cash is coming his way. This is the third year of the tour’s Player Impact Programme (PIP), which pays a bonus to golfers based on a variety of measurements from Google searches to Q-rating — essentially how much positive attention you generate for the sport.

Tiger Woods won for a second consecutive year in 2022 to take the first-place prize of $15 million from a $100 million pool for 20 golfers. And Fowler earned a $2 million bonus for finishing 16th. But that was nearly double his on-course earnings for a season in which he had only three top 25s and a lone top 10.

In contrast, Fowler has 18 top 25s and eight top 10s in 2022-2023, including that win in Detroit. That means he’s been a storyline far more often this season, drawing a lot more attention from social media like he did during his opening 62 at the US Open. In other words, the 34-year-old should expect a much bigger Christmas bonus this year.

The post Rickie Fowler is about to get paid PIP money as evidenced by new PGA Tour social media data appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Rickie Fowler isn’t old, but he’s old enough to recall the days before the PGA Tour’s wrap-around season began in the autumn of 2013. At first, there were mixed reviews.

The 34-year-old remembers a funny but frustrating moment two years into the experiment, in the early portion of the 2015-16 schedule.

“I think I went over and played [WGC-HSBC] China in November and finished third and by the time we started up on the West Coast [in January] I think I was like 68th on FedEx points,” Fowler told Golf Digest at the Tour Championship.

The problem with the wrap-around was that top players like Fowler — who had won the Players and the Deutsche Bank FedEx Cup playoff event in 2015 but earned no points for the new season — were punished in the standings for taking time off the in the autumn.

It’s safe to say that the top 30 players who made it to East Lake this year are welcoming the changes to the schedule that better incorporates an off-season. Starting at the Fortinet Championship next month in in Napa, California, the PGA Tour will stage a seven-event Fall Series. FedEx Cup points will be issued but not counted toward 2024 like they would have in the past. Instead, the points will be used to determine two things: the 10 players not previously eligible, who earn exemptions into the two signature events in 2024 after January’s Sentry event in Maui; and the top 125 category who get into regular PGA Tour events for those who finished outside the top 70 in the 2022-23 FedEx Cup standings. A Fall Series win comes with a two-year PGA Tour exemption, 500 FedEx Cup points, entry into the Sentry, Players Championship and majors.

For the top players, it means it’s possible to take time off from September to November, depending on a player’s eligibility for the Ryder Cup and various sponsor commitments.

“It’ll be nice to be able to pick and choose how much you want to play [in the autumn] and not necessarily have that count against you at the start the year,” said Fowler, who was at East Lake and now eligible for all the big events next year.

However, Fowler, whose drought-breaking sixth PGA Tour victory came at the Rocket Mortgage Championship this summer, will still play a handful of times the rest of this year, saying he thinks a lot of players won’t want to skip the autumn schedule.

“Yeah, it’ll be a combination,” Fowler said. “Sometimes you don’t want to go too long without playing competitive golf. I’m planning on playing the Zozo Championship [in Japan mid-October], the Hero [the early December event hosted by Tiger Woods in the Bahamas] and Grant Thornton [another unofficial tournament in Florida in mid-December].

Lucas Glover. Andy Lyons

Another top player who intends on teeing it up a couple times in the autumn is Lucas Glover, one of the hottest golfers at the end of the 2022-23 season. The former US Open champion won back-to-back starts in the regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship, and the FedEx St Jude Championship, the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

“My schedule really depends on the Ryder Cup,” said Glover, who at 16th in US team standings was waiting to find out if he was receiving one of Zach Johnson’s captain’s picks, which will be revealed today. “I’ve played some pretty good golf lately, but we’ll see if it’s enough. I want to be there, badly, but if not, I’ll understand.

“I’ll play Sanderson Farms because I love that event and the community gets behind it,” Glover said. “And also Bermuda because one of my good buddies, Michael Sims, is [a tour pro] from Bermuda and he normally plays in that event.” (Sims has qualified for the event every year since its inception in 2019.)

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick is among the European Ryder Cup team members who play on both the PGA and DP World tours. After the Tour Championship, the 2022 US Open champion will tee it up in the BMW Championship at Wentworth, then the Ryder Cup in Rome, followed by the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. He’ll close out the year with the Hero in the Bahamas.

“I personally want everything to be done by September, or the middle of September, and have a proper offseason,” he said. “People then miss the game and want to tune in [come January].”

Some players, though, don’t intend on playing much of anything.

“I think maybe one, but I’m not sure,” said 13-time PGA Tour winner Jason Day, whose wife Ellie is due with their fifth child in September. “I’ll have some time at home with our new baby, and I’d like to take at least two months off. 2016 was last time I took even one month off. I’m going to work more on my body for 2024.”

Sam Burns, who was also waiting on a potential Ryder Cup wildcard, wants to put the clubs down for a while.

“Probably not,” Burns said when asked if he’d play in the autumn. “I don’t have any plans to, currently. But everything’s kind of up in the air, still. I will take a pretty long break and then ease my way back into it. Totally reset. Guys want to get their bodies healthy and just take a break mentally. I think it’d be really good for a lot of guys.”

So, what will players who made the Tour Championship do with their weeks off?

“Hopefully, we’ll get to take at least one trip down to our house in the Dominican at Playa Grande. That would be a nice little vacation,” Fowler said.

Glover, 43, will also log some quality family time with his wife and two children.

“Good question,” he said. “We used to have six weeks off between [Tour Championship] and Kapalua. I’ll definitely watch some football games.”

Burns, who lives in Choudrant, Louisiana, said that he intends to go hunting.

No matter the player, or the autumn workload, one goal they all had was around recharging.

“These last couple of months I’ve been beat from the year and how much we’ve been on the road,” Fowler said. “Had a stretch starting at the PGA Championship through the Open Championship … it was 10 weeks and I was home for eight days. I’m ready to relax a little bit, get recharged and ready for the next year.”

The post The PGA Tour season is over. Now what? Top players explain how they intend to navigate the new autumn series appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Jay Monahan presided over his first player meeting on Tuesday at the FedEx St Jude Championship since returning from a voluntary absence, and while the 90-minute gathering was poorly attended and little new information was delivered, several players agreed that it was simply good to see the PGA Tour commissioner back at work.

And, apparently, a lot of work is yet to be done.

Fewer than 30 of the 70 players competing in this week’s first FedEx Cup playoff event gathered in the Oaks Room in the clubhouse at TPC Southwind. The majority of the meeting was spent reviewing the framework agreement that the tour announced June 6 in which the tour and the DP World Tour struck a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. There were questions about how it was rolled out and how a final deal might look.

Jay Monahan. Michael Reaves

“I think everyone has a better understanding of how things are operating,” Rickie Fowler said. “It was more about the release and how it was broken and how it came out was not how Jay or the tour would have hoped for. There’s still a whole lot that no one really knows, and we [the players] don’t know. It’s just continuing to trust that leadership and everyone is doing what’s best for all of us and the tour moving forward.”

Fowler provided a partial list of topics covered: “If the deal doesn’t work what are the potentials of moving forward? Does NewCo still stay around? Are there other investors? Is the tour sustainable how we currently are?

“The tour is in a great spot and it’s going to continue to grow. The possibility of NewCo and still looking at that. It’s more along the structure and what is the best option for moving forward, whether that’s with NewCo or without.”

NewCo is the proposed for-profit entity under which the PGA Tour and DP World Tour would operate with investment from the PIF, according to the framework agreement.

“It’s a lot of unknowns, I guess; a lot of unknowns,” said Tom Hoge. “I think it was good just to have Jay there in front of us all and see him again and see that he is doing well, and who knows what the path will be going forward. I guess we’re all just wait and see. This is my ninth year on tour going to these meetings, and I understand that not a lot comes from them.”

Monahan returned to work July 17 after stepping away for a month for medical reasons.

Among the notable players who skipped the gathering were Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Viktor Hovland.

A few players left the meeting early, disappointed to not have learned anything new. “The questions got to be repetitive,” said Jon Rahm, who stayed for the first hour. “It was the same stuff we already knew.”

“I thought it was pointless,” said Denny McCarthy.

The post Tour commissioner Jay Monahan meets with players for first time since absence appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Rickie Fowler is always one of the most popular golfers wherever he plays, but he’s in particularly high demand at this week’s Genesis Scottish Open. Not only is the PGA Tour star a former winner of this event, but he’s in the midst of a resurgence and coming off his first win in more than four years at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. So not surprisingly, many of the fans in attendance at The Renaissance Club have been screaming his name—they just haven’t all been screaming his name at the right player.

Here’s where Ewen Ferguson enters the story. The 27-year-old is a native of Scotland and a two-time DP World Tour winner. So you would think he would be pretty recognizable in his own right in these parts. But apparently, he keeps getting confused for the 34-year-old American. Even after playing his way into contention with an opening 66 on Thursday.

“It’s so funny the things I was hearing today walking around the course, ‘Rickie! Rickie!’” Ferguson told reporters following Thursday’s round. “I’m like, I need to break that guy’s heart; I’m not him.”

We can kinda see the resemblance. Although, if you look at the photo above, a lot of that probably has to do with the fact Ferguson is also sponsored by Cobra and Puma. And he likes to wear sunglasses on the course. Take those away, and, well, see for yourself:

Ross Parker – SNS Group

RELATED: Rory McIlroy was in awe after losing long drive contest to teenager

Ewen looks more like Adam Scott there. Or Jon Snow. Regardless, he’s a good-looking dude, he’s just not as similar-looking to Rickie Fowler as people think. And yet, the confusion continues.

“Even when I pulled up on the last here to the recording, they were shouting Rickie. I’m like, not Rickie, mate,” Ferguson added. “I’m just a wee guy from Glasgow. I don’t think it’s that bad. He’s some golfer, isn’t he.”

The good news for Ferguson? (Well, other than the fact that there are much, much worse people to be mistaken for.) For at least one day, he bested Rickie, who shot 67. And three more rounds like Thursday’s, and Ewen will have people shouting his actual name at him.

RELATED: Tyrrell Hatton shows remarkable restraint for ‘horrid’ Scottish Open shot

The post Scottish Open golf fans keep confusing this DP World Tour winner for Rickie Fowler appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Now that Rickie Fowler has finally won again, he seemingly can’t stop winning. The Rocket Mortgage Classic victor ended his four-year winless drought in July and has now followed that triumph by buying the driving range where he learned the sport of golf.

Fowler took up the game as a child with lessons from his grandfather, Yutaka, at the Murrieta Valley Golf Range. They went every Wednesday and it’s where the six-time PGA Tour winner became obsessed with the sport that has now made him enough money to buy the range back. Just 90 minutes from Los Angeles, Murrieta Valley, which opened in 1992, quickly became a home away from home for Fowler. It wasn’t just a safe haven but a place of work for the Fowler family.

Really cool story here! ?

Rickie has purchased the driving range he grew up on! He makes a promise to his hometown to keep the range running. Cool stuff. Worth a read! https://t.co/vr9L0Fp3sr pic.twitter.com/kUwkvdbCcu

— Rickie Fowler Tracker (@Rickie_Tracker) July 12, 2023

“I always wanted the range to be around and it to be open for the next generation,” Fowler told Golfweek. “I wanted kids to have the same opportunity as me if they were interested.

“My dad used to deliver the sand for maintenance and gravel for the parking lot in exchange for me to hit balls.”

According to its website, the Murrieta Valley Golf Range “is an all-grass golf practice facility with a 15,000 square foot putting green, three chipping greens, and a 60,000 square feet of driving space.” It opened in 1992 and has programs and community events for juniors, adults and families of all skill levels.

An anecdote in The Athletic after Fowler’s comeback Rocket Mortgage Classic win goes to show you how important the range was to the golf prodigy (and also how good he was at the sport at such an early age).

“In December of 1992, a 3-year-old Rickie Fowler walked into Murrieta Valley Golf Range with his grandpa. Young Rickie hit a bucket. Then he came back the next day and hit another bucket. Then his parents asked if the range offered any lessons.

“They signed up with one of the range’s pros, Mark Quinlan. He taught Rickie for the next year or so before moving on. [Teaching pro Barry McDonnell] took over. A year or two later, Barry pulled Bill aside. He said, ‘This kid is the one.’ ‘And I said, Jesus, Barry, he’s only 8!’”

PETER MUHLY

Rickie Fowler’s mother even mentioned that her son wanted to buy the driving range one day while walking along a fairway during a 2006-’07 high school tournament, according to Golfweek.

Fowler has hired Kemper Sports, a golf hospitality management company to assist with the upkeep and “week-to-week business stuff,” but he has no plans for any big changes on the horizon. The sale had been in the works for a couple of years after being delayed due to the pandemic. Ninety balls still go for $12 at Murrieta Valley, so hopefully that stays the same.

With his outstanding career and name recognition, Fowler could probably hit golf balls at basically any course in the world, but there’s no doubt that the Murrieta Valley Golf Range holds a special place in his heart.

MORE: I re-watched the final round of the 2006 Open Championship and saw ‘sheer perfection’ from Tiger Woods and a fashion faux pas by Sergio Garcia

The post Rickie Fowler continues incredible hot streak, buys childhood range where his dad worked appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

With time off before two consecutive weeks of playing in Great Britain, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas spent Sunday at Wimbledon, taking in the sights and scenes with their wives at All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.

The three looked dapper and appeared on multiple social media accounts earlier in the morning. The Wimbledon Instagram account posted a photo of the trio standing on Centre Court asking, “thoughts on this green.”

The Tennis Channel’s Twitter account posted a photo of the three with their wives—Annie (Spieth), Allison (Fowler) and Jillian (Thomas)—with the caption, “when the trip makes it out of the group chat!”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Wimbledon (@wimbledon)

By late evening outside London, the six watched 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic take on Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz. Djokovic is looking for his eighth Wimbledon title.

Spieth, Fowler and Thomas head north to Scotland next week to play in the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in Gullane. The Open Championship is the following week at Royal Liverpool in England.

The trip to Wimbledon is a far cry from the days when the three men joined Smylie Kaufman for spring break shenanigans at Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas, which they dubbed #SB2K16 and hilariously documented on their social media accounts. Just last year, during spring break, Thomas posted a photo on Instagram of himself, Spieth, Fowler, Kaufman and their wives acknowledging how much has changed over the years, but noted, “we’re all still the same hooligans at heart.”

The post Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas spend day at Wimbledon, watch Novak Djokovic match with their wives appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.