ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 5, 2021

Rickie Fowler

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. Just comments on your round today, 2-under par.

RICKIE FOWLER: I got off to a nice start. A lot of good out there. Things are definitely moving the right way. Just had a couple swings that cost me. But I'm happy with it. Like I said, it's getting closer and closer, so see if we get a tee time tomorrow, if we do we'll go play like hell this weekend. If note we'll go get ready for our tee time next Thursday.

Q. What kind of a challenge has this been for you, I know you're working hard at it, what's the challenge?

RICKIE FOWLER: It's definitely been a grind. I think more so it's just a mental challenge because playing and competing against the best players in the world for a decent amount of time now and being up there is at one point in the top-10 for quite some time and being one of the top guys in the world, it's just hard because you know what you're capable of and where you should be or what you expect out of your self, so that's been more of the struggle is not beating myself up too much and kind of taking a step back, let everything happen, be patient, but, yeah, it's been frustrating at times, been a grind, but we're still grinding it out.

Q. When you decided to make changes with your swing, you probably figured you were going to take a couple steps backward first, right? Just curious, was it harder than you envisioned, whatever you were working on, to try to get back? Was that part of the process that's been the frustrating thing that maybe when you do step back it's not that easy then to get it all synced up?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I think quarantine and the break ended up kind of hurting me in a way.

Q. Last year?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yes. Yeah, for me it's definitely been longer than I would have liked. Now if we look back on this in a couple years and I'm gone on to win a handful of tournaments and I'm in a good spot to be like, you know, was it worth it? Yeah. We all go through changes to ultimately come out in a better spot than we were before so that's why we're going through this and battling through it. Like I said, I think the break and quarantine wasn't the best for me, I have seen the most kind of strides and movement in the right direction in the last handful of months when I've started to play more, went through a pretty good stretch on the West Coast playing five weeks in a row, which I hadn't done since my rookie season. So that's where we're at right now is just trying to play through it, grind it out and starting to kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Q. Do you talk about this at all with your friends out here? Jordan's been going through it, obviously you're close with Justin. Or is it like when you're with them you don't want to talk about this stuff?

RICKIE FOWLER: No, we do talk about it a bit. The other thing too is between like JT and other guys, when we're back home in Florida, you see how hard everyone works, I know JT's mentioned it, he's seen the time that I've been putting in and it's not like I just go sit on the couch and there are those days, because resting and letting your body recover is a big part of this as well, so like last week I had two days that were fully off, out of the gym, away from the clubs, but trying to make things as efficient as possible.

So, yeah, we all talk about it, everyone's gone through it, sometimes it's longer stretches than others, sometimes it's maybe a few weeks, couple tournaments and right back on it, sometimes a few months, and for me we're riding this one out, but, yeah, Jordan's been through a bit of it, it's great to see him back at least heading the right direction and been in contention. So all you really need is one, two weeks or even a few good swings and good finish that it does a lot for the confidence and the mental outlook on it.

Q. Have you had chance or even aware of the Faldo stuff? Did you guys talk or did he reach out to you? Do you know what I'm talking about?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I don't really have to comment on it. I'll leave it up to him.