BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2023

Rickie Fowler

Olympia Fields Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Give us an assessment of your round.

RICKIE FOWLER: Anything under par around this golf course is a good round of golf, but I wanted more, wanted to move up the board a little bit more than I did, but still a solid couple days to start, and see if we can get it going this weekend.

Q. Do you feel like you let a couple slip coming down the stretch there?

RICKIE FOWLER: Well, yeah, between the bogeys and not continuing to make some birdies, but yeah, it's a tough place. It's tough to get good looks out there. To have any look at all, you have to drive the ball well and get yourself in position.

Like I said, still a lot of positives from the first two days, and off to a decent start, and in a position where we can go have some fun this weekend.

Q. Do you have any memories from the 63 you shot here when you were in college and maybe how the course has changed over 15 years? Does it look a lot different?

RICKIE FOWLER: Honestly, I don't remember it a whole lot, being 15 or so years ago. Golf course-wise, I remember kind of the general layout and was able to get reacquainted with it Tuesday and Wednesday.

But yeah, it was a little while ago. I remember it was a very good round of golf, and we'll see if we can maybe duplicate it this weekend.

Q. Do you remember your dad telling you on 16, you need one more birdie here, and you stuck it about six inches from the cup way up on the hill there?

RICKIE FOWLER: I don't remember it, but sounds like something may dad might say or try to get me to keep moving. I don't remember a whole lot from the round. I've seen the scorecard, pictures people have sent when they've been there, and I've seen it this week since I've been here.

Obviously it's always fun to be back here. I shouldn't say always. This is my first time back since then.

Really like this place, obviously having played well back in '07. It was just a fun place to play.

Q. I know you got to spend some time with Grandma Susie. What was that experience like, and what do you think she's thinking watching you rise up the leaderboard here?

RICKIE FOWLER: It was great to come full circle because we had sent her a couple birthday videos the past couple years, so for her to be able to come out and spend a little time with her was awesome.

Yeah, she had told me she was hoping I got off to a good start and be in the top 5. I need her to keep pushing me because we accomplished that and took care of that yesterday for her. Hopefully we can give her some more to watch this weekend.

Q. Did you ask Susie any questions?

RICKIE FOWLER: A little bit. We just chitchatted, had conversation for 10 minutes or so. Hopefully threw out some other guys' names that she can watch like Jordan and JT. I'm not sure if she actually didn't know them or -- I threw out the names and she wasn't quite sure. So we'll see. Maybe we gave her a few more guys to watch when she's watching golf on TV.

Q. Who do you think the first president was she voted for?

RICKIE FOWLER: I probably would have had a better chance if you asked me that back in like middle school. (Laughter.)

My presidential history has probably gone downhill since my early teens.

Q. Can you just comment on the greens out here? I watched a lot of guys miss three-footers, four-footers. Is there that much subtlety to the greens, even on the short putts?

RICKIE FOWLER: It's really -- some areas where it's subtle where the pins are in somewhat flat areas, but other than that, there's a lot of slope. It's all speed dependent. Whatever line you pick, you have to hit it with the right speed. You try and play the high line, you hit it a little hard, it's going to miss high and vice versa. You try and play it with a little tighter line and hit it a little soft, it's going to break across the hole. You can definitely get some areas where it's really hard to make putts out here unless you're in a good spot, but it's rare to have putts that aren't breaking much.

Q. Chris Kirk was in here a little while ago and he talked about pretty much being -- he hadn't won in eight years and he won at Honda. Said he was pretty much over it in about two weeks. How long have you been able to hang on to the feeling of winning in Detroit? Or do you try not to?

RICKIE FOWLER: A little bit of both. It's nice to have accomplished that this year and have that on the resume this year because that was one of my goals.

I would say it's hung around a little bit just because for a couple weeks there, I hadn't seen some people, and then you're getting some congratulations. I think there were still a couple people that I hadn't seen since then that this week, as well, had just come out and said wanted to congratulate me in person.

Yeah, still hangs around. I think it's always nice to have wins somewhat current to think back on, either what you did well or things that you would have liked to have maybe done differently in the situation.

It definitely makes -- after playing well tomorrow and being in a position to go win, can draw from a recent situation that I've been in.

I like keeping it somewhat fresh, but it's not something I'm prancing around or anything saying I won two months ago or anything like that.

Q. I would like to watch that if you feel like prancing.

RICKIE FOWLER: I'll let you know if it comes up.