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Rickie Fowler ended a four-year PGA Tour winless stretch in June 2023, emerging victorious in a three-man playoff to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic last summer.

Fowler is vying to become the tournament first back-to-back winner when he tees off on Thursday at the Detroit Golf Club, North Course.

“Looking forward to being back and picking up where we left off last year,” Fowler said Wednesday. “I haven’t played quite that well since then, so yeah, it would be nice to kind of get things going again this week here at Rocket.”

Fowler, 35, has struggled mightily this season, missing the cut three times — including twice this month — before a relative breakthrough last week. Fowler claimed a T20 finish at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn. He carded a 64 to reside two strokes off the lead after the opening round. He followed up with a pair of 69s before finishing strong with a 65 to end up 13-under-par for the tournament.

“Started to score a little bit better last week, which is obviously kind of the name of the game, putting up good numbers. Putted well last week,” Fowler said. “Yeah, kind of the first week to kind of see some good progress and kind of build some momentum and some confidence going into this week.”

Fowler outlasted Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin to win last year in Detroit, securing the trophy with a 12-foot birdie on the opening playoff hole.

On Thursday, he will play alongside Will Zalatoris and 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic winner Cam Davis.

“I feel like it’s a fairly simple, old-school golf course and if you can just get to the green, it becomes a bit of kind of who can make more putts throughout the week,” Fowler said.

Fowler was 12th in shots gained putting in the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic and was 20-under entering the final round. He circled putting as the critical key to a repeat.

“No, it’s fun, we don’t get to play very many old-school golf courses like this so it’s a treat for a lot of guys who can appreciate kind of old-school golf course architecture,” Fowler said. “Like I said, it’s a fun course to play and especially having good memories and coming off the win last year, we’ll see if we can kind of re-ignite some stuff from then and get past the little bit of a slow year it’s been and just go have some fun this week.”

–Field Level Media