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CHARLES SCHWAB CHALLENGE

May 22, 2019

Rickie Fowler

Fort Worth, Texas

Q. Rickie, you're making your seventh start here the Charles Schwab Challenge. Comments on being back at Colonial.
RICKIE FOWLER: Always great being back at Colonial. Won the Ben Hogan Award here. Few years back now, but I played Colonial a lot early in my career, and then with some of the schedule changes I had a few years off.

Came back last year and I've had a lot of good finishes here. Always loved playing here. Glad that it's been able to fit back into the schedule. Like I said, just because great town. Typically have a lot of support from the locals as well as there are some OSU alum and fans that make their way around.

It's a good place.

Q. Five top 10 finishes this season including a win. How is your game feeling?
RICKIE FOWLER: I'm feeling a lot better this week than I was last week. I was a little off on the swing last week and tried to fight my way around, which I did a great job of for three rounds and struggled in the wind on Sunday.

I was able to get some good work in yesterday, just a couple minor tweaks, and feel like I'm back into a good spot. I'm heading the right direction.

And, yes, it's been a good year. Very consistent having the win early. A lot of good finishes, so looking to pick back up where we were at before Bethpage.

Q. Any challenges playing a week after a major from the hype and adrenaline and preparation?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yes and no. I mean, I didn't play the week before leading up to the PGA, so it's not like I'm worn out or anything. I'm rested and ready to go.

Yeah, it is different coming from playing a major to playing the week after versus just playing a couple tour events in a row. A lot of it being with a lot bigger course last week it's mentally draining.

Like I said, that was the start of a three-week run. Feeling good with where we're at. I feel like we're in a better spot than we were last week just with not being where I wanted with my game.

Q. You just finished your Pro-Am. How is the course?
RICKIE FOWLER: Course is good. I mean, for the most part Colonial is always in good shape. Rough is kind of spotty. It's very playable, especially compared to last week.

But with the small greens and the wind that's forecasted for the week, you don't really want to be playing from the rough to try and stop it on these greens with them being soft, like I said.

It's a fun golf course. Don't have to hit a whole lot of drivers if you don't want to. If you're driving it well you can push it and play aggressively. I love the small targets, small greens and pins kind of in some corners. If you hit it in the middle of all these greens you're going to -- hit 18 greens right in the middle you're going to shoot a good score.

Q. Obviously you're off to a great start. (Regarding cuts.)
RICKIE FOWLER: I think I've done a good job when the game has been kind of off maybe tee to green. I do a great job just scrambling and keeping myself in it, staying away from big numbers, although I had a couple doubles last week. Those happen a little bit more at majors, especially when you have rough and a golf course like that.

So I've been happy. I mean, definitely a good cut streak going. Would like to keep that going here. It's tough making cuts on a weekly basis. It's not easy. People on the outside looking in probably think, Yeah, you should just go make the cut and you're into the weekend.

A lot of times there are guys that make the cut on the number and they're in contention come Sunday. A lot of situations like that. It's a very fine line from not having a tee time to being in contention come Sunday and having a chance to win a golf tournament.

Q. You're a Hogan Award winner. Is there any part of your game that's Hogan-esque?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I mean, Hogan was definitely someone I looked I hope to growing up. My coach was very old school. He was a Ben Hogan guy. I'm very much kind of an old school golfer, not very mechanical. I didn't grow up learning how to swing a club through mechanics or anything like that.

So I would say I'm a lot more of an old school player than maybe a lot of the guys out here. Yeah, I don't think Hogan really had video cameras a whole a lot to look at what his swing was doing. He kind of went out and figured out how to play, what he wanted to do, avoiding -- he kind of took the left side out of the golf course and the way he setup his clubs. Not that I do anything similar, but very much more just feel oriented.

So I would say that was probably the similarities back to kind of old school golf.

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