SHRINERS CHILDREN'S OPEN

October 16, 2024

Rickie Fowler

TPC Summerlin

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Rickie Fowler into the interview room here at the 2024 Shriners Children's Open. Rickie, this is your eighth start I think at this tournament. What do you love about coming back to Vegas and playing this event?

RICKIE FOWLER: It's a fun place. I lived here for a year when I first turned pro. I used to play and practice a bit here at Summerlin. Vegas is always a fun place to come back to. Great city, good food, just about anything you want to do, it's here.

Yeah, typically after a good year probably I don't play a whole lot in the fall, but I've liked playing this event and playing next week in Japan. It's kind of a nice way to break up what could be a long period of time off.

But, no, I've always enjoyed coming back to Vegas. Like I said, there is kind of everything you can think of, you can get it here.

Q. Is that all you've got scheduled you for the remainder of the season, this week and Japan?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, as of right now. This week, next week and play the Grant Thornton. A little fun way to finish off the year.

Q. We might have some weather challenges this week, colder weather and some strong winds. How will you adapt to that a little bit here?

RICKIE FOWLER: Wait and see what we get. I am off time morning, which looks normal and nice, so try and take advantage of that.

And then Friday it kind of just looks tough all day with the wind switching to a not-so-normal direction out of the north and a bit cooler temperature.

So kind of just have to wait and see. Not something we've seen here a whole lot and definitely something we've seen week. Being able to adapt and figure out what you got to do that day is part of what we do sometimes on a regular basis.

Q. You had a pretty long break before you tee'd it up at Sanderson and finished T16. Wondering, what did you see from your game? I'm not sure if you really knew what to expect after not playing for so long.

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, decided to play Sanderson; had a great time there. I enjoy the golf course. Steve runs a great tournament there. I know Sanderson has been a great sponsor of the event. I enjoyed it. It was a nice way to kind of have an event before these two weeks that I was planning on playing, see where the game was.

It was nice that there was a lot of good. I expected to hit some poor shots and have some rust to shake off, but I was happy with how the week went and saw a lot of positives with it, so I'm glad I did it.

Still working on things as far as getting back into the -- after having some time off just playing one event doesn't mean a whole lot. Gave me kind of an insight on things I've been working on, a lot of good stuff. Like I said, saw a lot of good results while I was there.

Q. At Sanderson you mentioned hitting the reset button. When you have a long break, like I think you were off for two and a half months, do you ever have occasion to think, okay, I've accomplished this, this, and this; I'm 35; this is what I want to do the next five years or ten years?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I mean, if you can remove yourself from a situation, because you always want more, but to go back and just think about ultimately what I wanted to do as a kid my dream was just to play on the PGA TOUR and win on the TOUR.

We've taken care of that, and it's nice to have that in our back pocket, but, yeah, reassessing and having that behind us, like I said, as competitors out here you continue to want more even if you accomplish all the things you kind of dreamed of doing.

So those kind of reassessing and setting new goals. For me being close in majors and then to having some -- a few off years, getting back to playing a bit more how I did two seasons ago and just playing some good golf and put myself in position to win tournaments.

You know, be nice to be able to have a major, if not multiple, on the resume by the time I'm done with this.

Q. For this season, you mentioned when you won Rocket you had a good season, kind of a bounceback year. For this season that you're coming to the end of, was there anything you can put your finger on, or was it just kind of one of those things, it's golf?

RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, the easy way to say it is it's golf. At the end of the day it kind of is. I felt like two years ago or the '23 season I did a good job of playing well on Saturdays and Sundays and making cuts by just a few shots, one or two here or there, and turning those into top 20s, top 10s, and when I did play well the first couple days I put myself in contention and have a lot of good finishes.

This past year I missed a few more cuts, but wasn't like I missed a bunch of cuts and didn't have a chance to play the weekends. I feel like when I had chances I didn't take advantage or play very well when it came to the weekend.

That was disappointing, because coming off the year before it was more just get myself a tee time on the weekend and we're going to move on up. Or if we're in a good spot, we're going to give ourself a good chance to go win.

So it was tough, like I said, coming off the previous year. More so trying to look back and take some of the positives and knowing that it was very close. It's just a fine line out here. I wasn't able to take advantage of the opportunities that I had.

Q. This will be your second time playing in the restructured FedExCup fall system. How do you think that has influenced these events in the fall? Do you think it's better for the competition? Just your perspective on some of the changes to the schedule in the FedExCup system?

RICKIE FOWLER: It's had a few changes over the last few years and it's going to continue to change. I would say it's a little hard to adapt to where we might be currently because that could be something that will change in the coming years.

Really at the end of the day you play good golf and all things kind of fall into place and everything kind of gets answers. For me with the fall and the year that I had, making sure that I stay inside the top 125, you know, so I'm in The PLAYERS and some other events, and being that I won last year, not necessarily having to worry about too much.

I'll be okay regardless for next year. I just want to get back to playing some good golf. There is benefits for me, obviously. Playing well; winning is a big bonus. So I think trying to get too caught up in the numbers trying to break it down and figure out what you might need to do, you can get lost in that a bit.

Go play good golf and the rest will take care of itself.

Q. How close do you feel right now to playing your best golf?

RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, from what I got to see at Sanderson and getting back to it being -- feeling a bit more simple. I'm excited about these few weeks and the time that I'll have through November, as well as December, to get ready for the West Coast Swing.

I'm not a young gun necessarily out here anymore, but I've got plenty more years left in front of me. I'm excited to get back to just playing some good golf and going and battling out with these guys on some late Sundays.

Q. So you lived here for a year. Wondering, how do you do Vegas? There is a lot of ways to do it. Do you hit the tables? Is it shows? How do you do it?

RICKIE FOWLER: Lived here for a year. I went down to The Strip once when Oklahoma State was in town playing a golf tournament at Southern Highlands and took them out to dinner. That was my one trip down there for the year.

Cam Tringale and I lived together here, as well as he lived with me in Florida for five or six years. We would go play blackjack every once in a while over at Red Rock.

I lived about a mile from the golf course here, so I spent most of the time when I was home, it would come play, practice. I had some local guys I would play with. Play at some other courses. Practice here, like I said.

I feel like a lot of times people that live in Vegas, outside of The Strip you don't really go down there unless you have a reason to. Like I was talking about earlier, when we do come back, for us the food is the big draw. We'll try and get out and that would be one the main reasons to go to the strip.

Q. I was going to say, you have your list of favorite restaurants you hit up?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, Allison and I, we've been married for five years now. I think two of the anniversary dinners have been at Carbone. This event is always falling close to the anniversary, so Carbone is up there for us. There is a lot of really good options here.