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FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

January 29, 2010

Rickie Fowler

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Rickie Fowler, thanks for joining us, followed up a 67 yesterday on the North Course with a 70 today and 7-under par through 36 holes, right in the mix. Maybe some comments about the first two days, very successful for you.
RICKIE FOWLER: It's nice to finally play some golf instead of whatever the other stuff I was doing the last two weeks. It's nice to hit some good shots and actually make some putts.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about you played with Matt Every today, who I'm sure you've played some golf with at some other levels, just about his play.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it was nice to play with Matt. We kind of fed off each other, and we're trying to in a way beat each other out. He came out ahead right now, so hopefully we can push each other this weekend. I had a great time with him, another quick player along with me, and it was nice to just keep moving forward, and like I said, play alongside someone that was playing well.

Q. You've talked about your love of the South. How much of a difference has that made just attitude-wise in turning your game around a little bit?
RICKIE FOWLER: You know, being close to home, playing in San Diego, playing on the courses that I'm familiar with definitely helps. And then some of the guys aren't too fond of the courses here and the greens, but this is what I grew up on, this is what I know best, and like I said, I love coming to San Diego and playing. I'm not against putting on poa annua greens.

Q. You got a lot of attention the last couple of weeks, magazines, cover of Golf World, I believe, and newspapers. I just wonder, did that put any sort of pressure on you? Did you try to sort of live up to expectations?
RICKIE FOWLER: There were high expectations from the media, but I think I had higher expectations for myself. Those first two weeks, the game was just a bit off. Something didn't feel right, a little uncomfortable, not being somewhere I was familiar. And then like I said, it's nice to come here and actually be familiar with a few things. I wouldn't say that I was feeling pressure or anything, I'm used to it. I had expectations through the Fall Series and played well through there. It was just I was a little bit off and didn't feel right.

Q. You talked about Rancho Murietta isn't very far from Palm Desert. I wonder last week, had you not played those courses?
RICKIE FOWLER: No, I hadn't. I think I had played nine holes twice on Silver Rock. Other than that, I had never seen any of the courses and had to go basically blind on Nicklaus Private. I got to see them a little bit, but still not seeing them before definitely made it tougher.

Q. Was it jarring at all not to play well those two weeks? You've had so much success in recent years as an amateur and then when you first turned pro, and is it the fact that the courses weren't familiar, or is there another reason you've been able to identify it and turn it around?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, not being familiar, but also with the swing game a little off, it doesn't make it easy to get around a place that you don't know. If you're hitting the ball well, you can go around and play any course you want.
But the two combinations of not swinging very well, being somewhere where I don't really know, but it happens in golf. I'm not going to play perfect every week type of thing. I mean, it's going to be up and down. It's not like I can Top 10 every week. It's not that easy.

Q. You're such a feel player, so when the swing wasn't going well, what did you do early in this week, and as a feel player, is there any sense of panic when the swing goes a little bad because if you're not mechanical, you don't necessarily know what to go back to right away?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yes and no. I always go back to fundamentals, working on setup, making sure posture is good, and then from there I called my coach Barry on Monday when I was driving down to play in Charley Hoffman's fundraiser, and he said work on taking it a little more outside. I've always taken it outside a little bit, not as much now as I used to, which taking it outside myself gave me a little bit more room and freed up the swing a bit and I wasn't stuck underneath and flipping or hanging anything out to the right. So it's definitely worked out well so far.
But being a feel player, like you said, you can't exactly go back to certain little spots on video and look at everything from sequence to all the different frames. But like I said, I just go back to the fundamentals of trying to hit the ball solid on the range.

Q. Did Barry actually see your swing, or you were just describing --
RICKIE FOWLER: I don't know. We never worked on or looked at my swing on video. He may have seen my swing on TV, but I don't think I was on TV very much in Palm Springs. He may have snuck a peek at one on TV, but other than that, he wasn't out in the desert or anything.

Q. He didn't come out?
RICKIE FOWLER: No.

Q. And you didn't stop by?
RICKIE FOWLER: No. I haven't seen Barry since I hit balls with him for about 20 minutes into the darkness over Thanksgiving.

Q. You're playing Riviera next week, that's four in a row. Do you know what your schedule is after that? And what would be too many weeks in a row for you?
RICKIE FOWLER: I'll play LA and then go up to AT&T, play the courses up there, and then I'm taking a week off after that. I would say the four and five weeks is basically max, five being absolute most.

Q. When you're in an unfamiliar place, is that as much wearing on your brain as playing the golf?
RICKIE FOWLER: It is, but if you're playing well, like I said earlier, if you're playing well and hitting the ball well, it doesn't matter if you've seen a course before, you're going to play well and score well. You may miss a spot, like one spot where it's going to cost you a shot, but if you're playing well it's going to be easy. If you're struggling with the game like I was, it wears you down a bit and makes it a lot tougher.

Q. What about the stuff away from the golf course? Does that wear on you, being in unfamiliar areas?
RICKIE FOWLER: It can. Since I got to play in some PGA TOUR events as an amateur through college and played the Fall Series, I've been out here -- I've gotten used to going to different places and traveling. Some of the guys aren't used to playing some of these events and the venues, so for me I'm comfortable with it. For the last two weeks it was just tough with the courses and my game.

Q. How familiar are you with Pebble and those courses in the AT&T, and do you have any history up there?
RICKIE FOWLER: I haven't played at PCC yet, but one of my best friends won the Cal Am there, so hopefully he can give me a few tips on that, that's Josh Anderson. And then I played in the Pebble Beach Invitational for Callaway back a few months ago and played well there. So two rounds at Pebble and one round at spy, played well at Spy and got around Pebble pretty well. I've played well there pretty recent, so looking forward to going back up there.

Q. You say your color is poinsettia?
RICKIE FOWLER: I haven't checked the tag, but I think that's what they call it.

Q. And do you choose that, or does somebody choose that for you?
RICKIE FOWLER: This is all me.

Q. How much does that differentiate from other people? There's so many good players out here. In a marketing sense is that important at all?
RICKIE FOWLER: It doesn't really matter too much, but I definitely like to look a little different. I guess you could call it stand out, but I don't want to blend in. I'm not exactly the old-school traditional golfer. Old-school in way with how I play the game maybe, feel and not as mechanical, but the way I dress isn't the clean-cut country club traditional golfer.

Q. Do you have any thoughts on the Ping i2 wedge controversy?
RICKIE FOWLER: You know, he mentioned something to me. Prior to everything here I haven't heard anything about it. He was saying something about square grooves possibly. But (shrugging) it's a gentlemen's game, so they're the ones that are going to have to face it.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Rickie Fowler, thank you very much.

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