“Butch had no idea it was going to happen until he walked into his teaching bay.”
Butch Harmon worked his final golf school at his eponymous Butch Harmon School of Golf, and he went out in style Saturday.
Harmon, 81, son of Masters champion Claude Harmon and the famed instructor who coached Greg Norman and Tiger Woods to world No. 1, and countless other players such as Phil Mickelson to majors and Rickie Fowler to the heights of their careers, opened his golf school at Rio Secco GC in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada, in 1997.
This final sendoff was a surprise orchestrated by Harmon’s wife, Christy.
“Butch had no idea it was going to happen until he walked into his teaching bay and there were 30+ of his friends,” said Harmon’s youngest brother, Billy.
Butch Harmon, speaking at his final golf school in Las Vegas, drapes an arm around his best man, Seth Reeves. (Courtesy Billy Harmon)
Twenty-seven years ago, Sam Reeves, who was Butch’s best man when he married Christy in 2001, attended Butch’s first golf school in the Vegas desert with nine members of his family. It was only fitting Reeves and his family, which now numbers about 25 and spans four generations, sponsored a two-day affair that marked the last of Butch’s schools.
Billy Harmon, the director of instruction at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells, Calif., and former caddie to Jay Haas, and his brother, Craig, the former longtime pro at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, participated as well as many other instructors who had worked with Butch over the years and learned under his wing.
“Many of them worked with Butch over 20 years ago,” Billy said. “An incredible affair and very unique experience.”
Butch Harmon held his final golf school alongside two of his brothers, Billy and Craig, and many instructors who learned under his wing. (Courtesy Billy Harmon)
“The Harmon brothers have been the most fortunate family in the history of golf,” Billy added. “The conversations we shared the last couple of days of our experiences in the game of golf were both fascinating and humbling. Three ordinary dudes that have lived extraordinary lives because of the game of golf and the wonderful people we have met.”
All of that may be true, but so is the fact countless golfers have been fortunate to receive instruction from one of the most brilliant teachers the game has ever known. And what an incredible way to wrap a career for Butch, arguably the most successful golf coach of the modern era.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In early April, Rory McIlroy flew to Las Vegas to see legendary golf instructor Butch Harmon for a second set of eyes.
“These are my Trackmans right here,” Harmon told his son Claude Harmon III on the “Son of a Butch” podcast, pointing to his nearly 81-year-old blue eyes. “These have worked pretty good for the last 40 years for these guys.”
Harmon had watched McIlroy make 26 birdies at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished T-21. One week later, McIlroy missed greens at TPC Sawgrass with his short irons.
“I explained to him you have a golf swing built to drive the ball. You’re the best driver of the ball in the game that I’ve seen since Greg Norman. The problem is you hit your wedge shots with your driver swing,” Harmon explained. “You have this big-old long swing and this big-old follow-thru and the balls to high in the air. I need to show you how to hit three-quarter shots, bring the ball flight down so one hop and stop. You’ll control the distance better. I said, ‘Look, you need to put your own take on how you do it’ and so far he’s done a nice job of it.”
McIlroy, who entered the 2024 PGA Championship having won in his previous two starts, had one of those wedge shots Harmon talked about on Thursday that kept his round from coming off the rails.
At the par-5 18th hole, the ninth hole of the day for McIlroy who started on the back, the Northern Irishman leaked his tee shot to the right and into the water. He took a penalty and a drop and layed up to 120 yards. He had made bogey on the previous hole to fall back to 1 under after a pair of early birdies at Nos. 10 and 13 and was in danger of dropping back to even on a day where balmy conditions and receptive greens were a recipe for low scoring.
But McIlroy hit a beautiful wedge shot that hopped and stopped about 5 feet from the hole. McIlroy drained the par saver, made birdie at No. 1 and strung together three birdies in a row starting at No. 5 and including a chip-in at the sixth en route to an opening-round 5-under 66. That matches his opening-round 66 in the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, which he went on to win.
Of the up-and-down at 18, which felt as good as any birdie, he said, “That kept any momentum that I had going into the next nine.”
That wasn’t his only good wedge shot. McIlroy had his own way of describing how he’s been dialed in so well of late with the short irons.
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 16, 2024
“I think just the same feelings I’ve been having with my golf swing, feeling strength in the club face on the way back, and then trying to keep that strength so that it forces me to really get out of the way on the down swing,” he said. “That’s the thought with the wedges and with the irons.”
It’s been a game-changer for the four-time major winner and could be the ticket to get him a third Wanamaker trophy. McIlroy, who is seeking his first major since winning the 2014 PGA Championship here nearly 10 years ago, sits four behind the pacesetter Xander Schauffele, who he chased down last week at the Wells Fargo Championship, and tied for fourth with Bob MacIntyre.
“I sort of felt like it was pretty scrappy for the most part,” said McIlroy, who didn’t drive it anywhere near as well as he did last week. “I don’t really feel like I left many out there. I thought I got a lot out of my game today… not really happy with how I played but at least happy with the score.”
McIlroy has been coached for nearly all of his career by Northern Ireland-based Michale Bannon.
Does Rory McIlroy have a new swing coach?
Reports began circulating on Wednesday based off a social media post by a journalist, who covers other sports but not golf, that McIlroy has begun working with famed teacher Butch Harmon.
Golfweek can confirm that McIlroy took a lesson from Harmon a week ago in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean he’s parted ways with his longtime coach Michael Bannon and is now working with Harmon, the son of 1948 Masters champion Claude Harmon.
Speaking on the “I Can Fly” podcast, McIlroy said that he took a lesson with Harmon on March 27.
“I went last week to see Butch Harmon for a golf lesson. I’ve seen him over the years, like once every few years I’ll say, ‘Hey, Butch, can I come see you and you can take a look and see what you think.’”
On the podcast, McIlroy, 34, recounts that as he was leaving for the airport, his three-year-old daughter Poppy asked him, “Dada, where are you going?”
McIlroy said he was going for a golf lesson, which drew this classic kids say the darnedest thing response: “She said, ‘Dada, you already know how to play golf,’” McIlroy said. “That’s probably the best piece of advice I’ve gotten in the last three years.”
Dipping into the golf world with a scoop:
I’m told Rory McIlroy has begun work with Butch Harmon.
Harmon, “the best golf instructor in the world,” worked with Tiger Woods from 1993-2004, Phil Mickelson from 2007-2015, and recently helped Rickie Fowler find his swing again.
The 80-year-old Harmon, who coached the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Greg Norman during the prime of their careers, retired from traveling to PGA Tour events but still works with the likes of Rickie Fowler and Maverick McNealy, who visit him at his Las Vegas facility.
McIlroy has been coached for nearly all of his career by Bannon, who is based in Northern Ireland and travels to the U.S. to work with McIlroy when needed. McIlroy spent a brief stint with Pete Cowen in 2021 ahead of the Masters that year but returned to Bannon several months later.
McIlroy won the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic in January, but has failed to record a top-10 finish this season on the PGA Tour. If he fails to do so this week in San Antonio at the Valero Texas Open, it will mark the first time he’s headed into the Masters without one since 2010.
McIlroy’s iron game has been a point of emphasis of late. He has slipped from eighth in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green (+0.721) last season to 119th in the category this season (-0.176).
McIlroy needs to win the Masters to become just the sixth golfer – and first since Woods – to complete the career Grand Slam. The Masters begins on April 11.
On Wednesday, prior to the Valero Texas Open, McIlroy confirmed that he did spend time with Harmon in Las Vegas, a recurring theme throughout his career.
“I met Butch when I was 14 years old, so we’ve always had a good relationship. If there’s one guy that I want to go and get a second opinion from, it’s him. Yeah, I think just after The Players, I was just sort of struggling through that Florida Swing with my swing and with some of the misses I was having with my irons, I just thought to myself I’m obviously missing something here and I just would love to go and get a second opinion and have him take a look, a second set of eyes,” McIlroy said.
“The one thing with Butch is you go spend time with him and you’re always going to feel better about yourself at the end of it whether you’re hitting it better or not. He’s sort of half golf coach, half psychologist in a way,” McIlroy said. “It’s fun to go out there, I went and spent probably four hours with him in Vegas. He said a couple of things to me that resonated. It’s the same stuff that I’ve been trying to do with my coach Michael, but he sort of just said it in a different way that maybe hit home with me a little bit more.
“Yeah, it was a really worthwhile trip and I feel like I’ve done some good work after that. As I said, this is a good week to see where that work has gotten me.”
Golfweek’s Tim Schmitt contributed to this report.
HOYLAKE, England — Rickie Fowler has fond memories of playing in the 2014 British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. He finished second to Rory McIlroy, but never was really a threat on Sunday.
But when Fowler thinks back to British Opens in the past, he tends to go back one more year to Muirfield and a missed cut that stuck in his craw. On Saturday at the 2013 Open, Fowler hung around and met with instructor Butch Harmon for the first time. He can’t remember whether he got the number of the famed instructor from Phil Mickelson or his then-caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay, but after consulting with then-caddie Joe Skovron he knew it was time to re-build his swing and find a second set of eyes. Fowler’s longtime instructor Barry McDonnell had died in May 2011. Fowler was so broken up that he couldn’t speak at McDonnell’s funeral and he had been working on his swing on his own.
Harmon was at Muirfield that week to do TV commentary for Sky Sports and work with his stable of players, but he found a window of time in the early afternoon to watch Fowler hit balls — that’s how nearly every player-coach relationship starts. Harmon gave him a few drills to help with his back swing and position at the top.
“I wouldn’t say we accomplished a whole lot because I was hitting it terribly but I knew that we had some stuff to work on and this is where we’re starting,” Fowler recalled.
As a matter of fact, Fowler struggled so mightily to find the clubface that he asked Harmon, “Are you trying to make me look bad?”
“I think you’ve done that on your own the last two days,” snapped back Harmon.
Fowler immediately liked the way Harmon was a straight shooter. Despite never winning a major, they had a fruitful relationship with Fowler reaching No. 4 in the world in 2016 and becoming a perennial top-50 player. Not long after Fowler hooked up with Harmon, he learned that McDonnell had told the guys at the driving range where he taught Fowler that he thought Harmon shared his old-school techniques and was the right instructor to work with Fowler when he was gone.
“It was nice to hear Barry’s stamp of approval,” Fowler said.
Fowler remained in Harmon’s stable until 2019 when he retired from traveling to PGA Tour events. In the ensuing years, his game took a turn for the worst. Fowler went 29 consecutive events without recording a top-10 finish and his ranking dropped to 185th. In October, he reunited with Harmon. Golf Channel’s Johnson Wagner recently analyzed Fowler’s swing from the 2021 CJ Cup, when he had a top-10 finish during his slump, and compared it to Fowler’s current technique with the fixes Harmon has made.
“His clubhead was so laid off. It was like underneath his shoulder blade,” Johnson said. “Right now, it is perfectly parallel, clubface is in a great position. This is a major change that he’s implemented in (less than) 12 months.”
As a measure of his improvement, Fowler has rediscovered his old magic and climbed back to No. 22 in the world. He held a share of the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open last month and ended his more than four-year winless drought in Detroit. Fowler calls links golf his favorite golf and is poised to make a run at the British Open a decade after he got his first lesson from Harmon. A win on Sunday at Royal Liverpool would be the biggest thing to happen in these parts since the Beatles. But it takes a different breed to close out a major and Johnson questions if Fowler has “the killer instinct.”
“I don’t think he’s willing to do whatever it takes to beat you,” Wagner said on The Five Clubs podcast. “Even when he won Rocket Mortgage, he made that putt in a playoff and he just kind of stood there with a relieved look. Give me a fist pump, give me some fire.”
But the Champion Golfer of the Year has been a first-time major winner in four of the last six years, and where talented players such as David Duval, Darren Clarke and Henrik Stenson who hadn’t been able to get over the hump were finally able to break through. Fowler could be next – especially now that Harmon is no longer making him look bad, but once again good.
At the Farmers Insurance Open in January, I told Rickie Fowler that instructor Butch Harmon had predicted at the PGA Merchandise Show to me that his star-crossed pupil, winless for nearly four years at the time and having returned to his former instructor just months ago, would end his drought this year.
“Did he say which week?” Fowler asked with a wry smile.
It turns out Butch was right again. It wasn’t the U.S. Open, where Fowler shot a record-breaking 62 and held the 54-hole lead two weeks ago, nor the Travelers Championship where he carded a third-round 60 but couldn’t keep pace with eventual champion Keegan Bradley. But the stars were aligned on Sunday in Detroit, where Fowler birdied the 72nd hole to join a three-man playoff and birdied 18 again to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“He’s the best golf coach out there,” Fowler said during his winner’s press conference shortly after defeating Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa in the playoff to earn his sixth career PGA Tour title. “He does a great job with players, taking what they have and ultimately making them the best that they can be with who they are and how they swing and making what they do well that much better and bring up the weaknesses.”
Fowler developed his flat, looping swing as a kid under the watchful eye of instructor Barry McDonnell, who taught at Murrieta Valley Golf Range in Murrieta, California. McDonnell died in June 2011 at age 75 from complications related to a heart attack. Fowler spent the better part of the next two years without a coach but in December 2013, he hooked up with Harmon for the first time in an effort to boost his performance in the four majors. That year, Fowler finished in the top 5 in all of golf’s biggest championships with his re-tooled swing. He won the 2015 Players Championship and reached as high as No. 4 in the world but never broke through at a major.
Rickie Fowler and his caddie Ricky Romano react with joy after making birdie on the 18th green to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic in a playoff against Adam Hadwin and Collin Morikawa at Detroit Golf Club on Sunday, July 2, 2023. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Network)
Part of what has made Harmon an invaluable resource to top pros over the years is his willingness to call a spade a spade. The last thing pupils like Rickie, Phil or Tiger needed over the years under Harmon’s tutelage was another yes man. In 2017, Harmon recounted on Sky TV, where he worked as an analyst, that he gave Fowler some tough love.
“And he didn’t like it,” Harmon recalled. “I said, ‘You gotta decide are you going to be a Kardashian or are you going to be a golf pro?’ You’re the king of social media, you’re all over these Snapchats and all these things … “You need to reach down and grab your ears and get your head out of your you-know-what and get back to work.”
Harmon remained in Fowler’s corner until he announced his retirement in 2019 and no longer was a regular presence at PGA Tour events.
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“Our split was really just because he stopped traveling, and then things weren’t working the last few years,” Fowler said Sunday.
He began working with instructor John Tillery, who had great success with Fowler’s friend Kevin Kisner. Fowler goes to great lengths in every interview to credit Tillery for teaching him many things during the ensuing years but the partnership didn’t bear fruit.
Fowler went 29 consecutive events without recording a top-10 finish, his ranking dropped to 185th and he rarely qualified for major championships. His ball-striking stats plummeted outside the top 100 and devoting so much time to re-tooling his swing had an unforeseen consequence: his trusty putting stroke began misbehaving to such an extent that he fell outside the top 160 in 2022.
Rickie Fowler and Butch Harmon ahead of the 144rd Open Championship at The Old Course at St. Andrews. (Photo: Steve Flynn-USA TODAY Sports)
To his credit, Fowler just kept his head down and soldiered on. He still signed every autograph and answered every media interview question wondering when he’d break out of his slump.
“He’s just stayed the same Rickie,” Max Homa said. “I think some people when they go through it, you kind of become like a shell of yourself and you go through maybe some mental torture when you’re playing golf.”
As tough as it was for Fowler’s fan base to stomach his dip in performance, it may have been toughest on Harmon.
“When Rickie went through his bad stretch, it was brutal to watch,” Harmon told Golf Digest. “I knew how good he could be, but his swing wasn’t producing. After a while, he lost his confidence, too. But he never wavered as a person, signing all the autographs, and giving his time. If the world was full of Rickie Fowlers, it would be one hell of a place.”
Fowler parted ways with Tillery in the fall and reconnected with Harmon. The results were instantaneous as Fowler finished T-6 at the Fortinet Championship in September and held the 54-hole lead at the Zozo Championship in October before faltering in the final round.
CBS lead analyst Trevor Immelman spent a couple of days with Fowler and Harmon in Las Vegas, where he lives and still teaches, during the Shriners Children’s Open and Butch walked Immelman through the changes. He loved what they were working on, and could see it bleeding in slowly on the golf course.
“Which is the last hurdle,” Immelman said. “It took a little while to unravel the knot.”
“Butch is great, just his voice and having him in your corner,” Fowler said during the U.S. Open. “Just telling you something to give you a little confidence to go out there and just go play golf and keep it simple.”
Simple to say, but harder to do. Nevertheless, Fowler’s game has been building to victory: 12 finishes inside the top 20 in his last 13 starts; impressive gains in nearly every statistical category; and back inside the top 50 in the world. (He jumped to No. 23 after the win.) Older and wiser, Fowler is married and a parent to Maya. He remains a darling of corporate America but his “Kardashian days” are behind him.
“It’s definitely been long and tough. A lot longer being in that situation than you’d ever want to,” Fowler said. “But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now.”
What Fowler has accomplished in eight months since he began sending swing videos to Harmon again is nothing short of remarkable. Speaking to Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio, Harmon said, “This one meant more to me personally than a lot of the major I’ve won with different guys.”
Final selections for the 2024 World Golf Hall of Fame induction class will be announced the week of March 6.
The World Golf Hall of Fame announced its finalists for the 2024 Hall of Fame induction class Wednesday, and it’s loaded with star power.
Among the big names? Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk. Cristie Kerr and Dottie Pepper.
Final selections for the 2024 World Golf Hall of Fame induction class will be announced the week of March 6. There are 12 finalists, and they include major champions, instructors and those who had a profound impact on the game, including the remaining seven of the 13 founders of the LPGA.
The finalists were selected by a nominating committee comprised of select Hall of Fame members, media, World Golf Foundation Board organizations and at-large selections. Additionally, all living Hall of Fame members were sent ballots and had the opportunity to vote.
“The nominating committee has selected finalists who represent the highest caliber of competitors and contributors,” said Greg McLaughlin, CEO of World Golf Hall of Fame. “Congratulations to all who have been nominated for this special recognition.”
These 12 finalists will be considered for admission into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Class of 2024 by a 20-member Selection Committee, comprised of Hall of Fame members, media representatives and leaders of the major golf organizations. They will be tasked with reviewing the merits and qualifications of each finalist and ultimately selecting the Class of 2024.
The 12 finalists are Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf, Dottie Pepper, Jim Furyk, Cristie Kerr, Sandra Palmer, Peter Dawson, Butch Harmon, Johnny Farrell, Beverly Hanson, Jay Sigel, and the seven remaining co-founders of the LPGA: Alice Bauer, Bettye Danoff, Helen Detweiler, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Shirley Spork, Sally Sessions.
Harrington won 21 times professionally, 15 of those coming on the European tour. he also has three major victories and appeared on six Ryder Cup teams. He also captained the 2020 team.
Weiskopf won 16 times on the PGA Tour and captured the 1973 Open Championship.
Pepper won 17 times on the LPGA, including two majors. She was also tabbed 1992 Player of the Year and was a part of six Solheim Cup teams.
Palmer has 21 victories and two majors in her career, earning Player of the Year honors in 1975.
Dawson served as chief executive of the R&A for 16 years and played a pivotal role in golf returning to the Olympics.
Harmon is one of the best instructors in golf history. His pupils include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman.
Farrell has 22 victories on Tour and won the 1928 U.S. Open.
Furyk has captured 17 wins on the PGA Tour, including the 2003 U.S. Open. He was named Player of the Year in 2010. He’s the only golfer to have shot a 58 in competition.
Hanson won the U.S. Women’s Am in 1950 and went on to win three majors and 17 titles.
Kerr has 20 official victories and two majors and has been a part of nine Solheim Cup teams. She ranks third on the LPGA’s all-time money list.
Sigel was a stellar amateur, winning 27 total am events, including the 1982-83 U.S. Amateur, the 1979 British Am and three U.S. Mid-Ams.
“It was hard to watch him go from a perennial top-10 player in the world all the way to outside the top 150.”
SAN DIEGO – When Rickie Fowler reached out to Butch Harmon and asked him to take a look at his swing, the famed golf swing instructor, who had coached the 34-year-old Fowler during the most successful years of his career, admitted that he shared a thought with many of Fowler’s ardent fans: What took so long?
“I didn’t say it,” Harmon said at the PGA Demo Day on Tuesday ahead of the 70th PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, “but I was thinking it.”
Harmon chuckled and then his face straightened, and he continued.
“It was sad,” he said. “It was hard to watch him go from a perennial top-10 player in the world all the way to outside the top 150.” (Fowler dropped to 160th but has improved to 106th entering this week.)
Fowler finished 134th and 125th in the FedEx Cup rankings the past two seasons and hasn’t won since the WM Phoenix Open in February 2019, but Harmon predicts that will change.
“I think he’ll win this year,” he said, adding, “The game needs it.”
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After Fowler opened with an even-par 72 in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open the South Course at Torrey Pines on Thursday, he was asked about Harmon proclaiming that victory was on the horizon.
“That’s going to happen,” Fowler said. “I thought he was going to say this week. I’m not off to the start I need but it’s not out of the question.”
Since parting ways with instructor John Tillery in September and announcing that he and Harmon had resumed working together, Fowler has shown steady progress in returning to the player who has five PGA Tour titles, including the 2015 Players Championship, to his credit. He recorded finishes in the top 10 twice in his first three starts this season, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Zozo Championship.
Rickie Fowler hits his tee shot on the first hole during the first round of the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. (Photo: Ray Acevedo-USA TODAY Sports)
“He was way too flat and getting stuck, his left arm position is more up and he’s got more rotation in his hips during the backswing.”
Fowler concedes the swing changes are a work in progress and still look better on the range than they do on the course. He struggled with his driver and overall ball striking last week at the American Express, where he missed the cut, noting he got away from a feeling he’s striving for on the takeaway.
“I know for sure I’m doing the right things. I still have to give a lot of credit to (John) Tillery even though we didn’t have the success over those three years, I learned a lot and he put me in the position when I started back with Butch to have a better understanding,” Fowler said. “It’s been a lot of work but when you know you’re doing the right things and seeing the ball doing what you want it to do and getting some of those good finishes in the fall, it’s definitely nice to be gaining some confidence and momentum.”
Much like when World No. 1 Rory McIlroy reconnected with his longtime coach, Michael Bannon, CBS Sports lead golf analyst Trevor Immelman said he felt relief when Fowler rejoined Harmon.
“Butch just has this way about him. He’s a great coach,” Immelman said. “I think Rickie respects him enough to where he’ll listen and to where, when Butch is tough on him, he’ll react positively. And I just love what they’re working on. I spent a couple of days with them in Las Vegas at the Shriners (Children’s Open) and Butch was taking me through all the changes and I could see the difference on the range. And it’s you know, now I can start to see it’s bleeding in slowly on the golf course, which is the final hurdle.”
If anyone needed a re-boot, it was Fowler, who last won the Phoenix Open and barely snuck into the first playoff event.
NAPA, Calif. – New season, new equipment, new caddie, new coach and a strong start at the Fortinet Championship for Rickie Fowler.
The five-time PGA Tour winner announced last month that he parted ways with Joe Skovron, his caddie of 13 years. Last week, Fowler confirmed reports that he also ended a relationship of more than three years with swing instructor John Tillery, and he switched into a more forgiving version of Cobra irons this week for good measure.
If anyone needed a re-boot, it was Fowler, who last won at the 2019 WM Phoenix Open and barely snuck into the first playoff event at No. 125 (out of a field of 125) in the standings last season. When his season ended in Memphis, he decamped to Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas and decompressed for five days.
So far, so good. Fowler showed up at this week’s season opener of the 2022-23 PGA Tour campaign with renewed purpose and played the brand of golf he’s more accustomed to – a bogey-free 5-under 67 at Silverado Resort’s North Course.
“I missed a 10-foot putt on No. 18, my ninth hole, otherwise I would have what I would consider a perfect card with no bogeys and no fives on the card,” Fowler said.
Rickie Fowler: bogey-free 67; his first time starting a tournament with a bogey-free round of 67 or lower since January (Farmers Insurance Open).
Fowler is one stroke off the early lead set by S.H. Kim and Ben An, who opened the new season with three birdies in his return to the Tour after a season spent on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Fowler was accompanied by veteran looper Ricky Romano for his splendid start.
“He’s about my size,” said the 5-foot-9 Fowler. “So, I won’t look too small out there, which is a good thing.”
Romano, who played at the University of Houston before turning to caddying, grew up in Fowler’s hometown of Murrieta, California, and is four years older than him.
“He’s a good fit for me just because he’s someone I know, someone I know is a good player and I can trust his insight from the get-go,” Fowler said.
Fowler had only kind words for Tillery, his former swing coach.
“I couldn’t love the guy anymore, and we gave it a good run but it was almost like speaking another language in a way and it never really clicked,” Fowler said. “I’ll take a lot out of the time we spent together. It’s not like the last few years were for nothing. I gained a lot of knowledge and I feel like I’m in a very good spot.”
Fowler will be relying on his former coach Butch Harmon for swing advice.
“I love it,” said Webb Simpson, a fellow Harmon disciple. “What Butch does is he keeps it so simple for us. Every time I’ve gone to see Butch, he makes me feel like I’m playing better than I am, swinging better than I am and I leave with two or three things to think about. That’s it.”
Fowler always had remained in contact with Harmon, who he last spent time with ahead of the CJ Cup last October. Fowler held the 54-hole lead before finishing T-3, his best result of the season. So far, they have been working together via video and phone and will spend time together next month in Las Vegas.
“It’s going to take some time,” Fowler said before what he’s working on at the range translates to the course. “The way I hit some shots and drove the ball today, it’s good feedback to just build more confidence.”
As if Fowler hadn’t shaken things up enough, he also inserted the latest version of Cobra’s CB irons into his bag this week.
“I figure if I was getting all the same numbers but they were more forgiving, why make it any harder on yourself?” he said. “Kind of check the ego at the door and play what works.”
The tournament was delayed 90 minutes due to morning fog. Fowler wasn’t the only one to get off to a hot start at the Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed layout. Sahith Theegala, who made the Tour Championship last season, and Greyson Sigg — who said he spent two weeks sitting on the couch, got married last week in North Carolina and had barely touched a club during his three-week off-season — were among nine players who shot 5-under 67 and trailed Justin Lower (63) by four shots.
“There’s something to be said with coming out to a tournament with really no expectations and coming out and playing good,” said Sigg of his bogey-free start.
“I’m just trying to get back to playing golf than worrying and playing golf swing,” Fowler said.
New season, new team for Rickie Fowler.
The five-time PGA Tour winner announced last month that he parted ways with Joe Skovron, his caddie of 13 years. On Tuesday, Fowler confirmed reports that he also ended a relationship of more than three years with swing instructor John Tillery.
“I couldn’t love the guy any more, and we gave it a good run but it was almost like speaking another language in a way and it never really clicked,” Fowler told Golfweek. “He’s had plenty of success with his guys and I wish I would have played significantly better. I’ll take a lot out of the time we spent together. It’s not like the last few years were for nothing. I gained a lot of knowledge and I feel like I’m in a very good spot.”
When Fowler shows up next week in Napa, California, at the Fortinet Championship, the season opener of the 2022-23 PGA Tour campaign, he will have veteran looper Ricky Romano on the bag.
“He’s about my size,” said the 5-foot-9-inch Fowler. “So, I won’t look too small out there, which is a good thing.”
Scott Piercy and caddie Ricky Romano during the second round of the 2022 Zurich Classic of New Orleans in Avondale, Louisiana. (Photo: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports)
Romano, who played at the University of Houston and on the mini tours before turning to caddying and working for the likes of Nate Lashley and Scott Piercy, grew up in Fowler’s hometown of Murrieta, California, and is four years older than him.
“He’s a good fit for me just because he’s someone I know, someone I know is a good player and I can trust his insight from the get-go,” Fowler said. “There won’t be necessarily a big learning curve.”
And who will Fowler be relying on for swing advice? He’s decided to spend more time with his former coach Butch Harmon. Fowler always had remained in contact with Harmon, who he last spent time with ahead of the CJ Cup last October. Fowler held the 54-hole lead before finishing T-3, his best result of the season.
“That was like a stamp of approval from someone who has helped in some of my best years of my career,” Fowler said of Harmon’s contribution that week. “I’m planning to have more communication with him this fall, but not committing or going anywhere outside of that right now.”
Fowler said he plans to play in the Shriners Children’s Open in October and expects to visit with Harmon ahead of that week.
Fowler last won at the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. He missed the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time in 2021 and snuck into the first playoff at No. 125 in the standings this season.
“I’m just trying to get back to playing golf rather than worrying and playing golf swing,” Fowler said.
Nick Watney benefits from an “amazing lifeline” to try to resurrect his PGA Tour career via a one-time PGA Tour top-50 career earnings exemption.
Nick Watney calls it “an amazing kind of lifeline.” After finishing 204th in the FedEx Cup Standings last season, failing even to make the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, Watney is playing this season on a one-time-only use of a top-50 PGA Tour career money-list exemption. Watney’s rank on the career money list entering the 2021-22 season? No. 50. In other words, it was now or never to use it.
“To have that was incredible,” he said.
Watney, 40, is making the most of it in the early going of the new season. He followed up a respectable T-29 at the season-opening Fortinet Championship with a tie for second Sunday at the Sanderson Farms Championship, shooting a final-round, bogey-free 65 to finish with a 72-hole total of 21-under 267, a stroke behind winner Sam Burns.
“This is why I play golf,” Watney said, “to be nervous and pull it off.”
Watney once was among the top players in the game, cracking the top 10 in the world in 2011 and winning five times between 2007 and 2012. But he’s endured a victory drought, 3,325 days and counting, since the 2012 Barclays and hit rock bottom last season when he missed 13 cuts in a row and 18 in a span of 19 starts to plummet to No. 660 in the world entering the Sanderson Farms Championship.
“Last year there were some low times that kind of, I asked myself some really tough questions,” he said. “You know, do I want to keep playing? Do I enjoy this?”
Watney’s soul searching cut to the bone, eventually getting around to this realization: “I’ve played long enough that I don’t really know anything else, you know?”
All that time on the road with nothing to show for his efforts made leaving his family unbearable. That had to be factored into the equation, too. So, what was the answer to the tough question of whether he still loved the nomadic life that is the PGA Tour?
“I really do,” he said.
He decided to go back to the grindstone. Watney began working with his longtime instructor Butch Harmon to try to recapture the magic that made him one of the best in the game. Watney may not have gone home with the Sanderson Farms signature rooster trophy, but he departed with a confidence boost – his first top-10 finish since a T-10 at the 2019 Safeway Championship and best result since tying for second at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship – that could be the difference as he tries to make the most of his one-time career money-list exemption.
“I think this proves to myself that what I’m working on is the right thing,” he said. “There was definitely some lean times, especially last year, but I mean that’s, I’m not trying to think about that any more, I’m trying to continue to get better and this was a great step this week.”
