Rickie Fowler has been one of the most recognisable figures in golf for most of his career, amassing 10 professional wins including six PGA Tour titles. Clad in his iconic orange apparel, Fowler finished runner-up in three out of the four Major Championships, and won't be ready to give up hope of eventually getting over the line.
He has made huge strides with his performances in the last couple of years, following a slump in form, and his hard work paid off when he ended a four-year winless streak to take the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
In this article, Rickie Fowler shares five tee-to-green tips to help you improve your own golf game...
1. Driving
I think with driving, people try to hit it hard. This is a good thing, but if you don’t know where it’s going, it really doesn’t matter how hard you’re hitting it. Swinging within yourself and figuring out how to properly hit it straight is key for consistency. Get that figured our first, and then you can move on to driving it further from there.
2. Irons
The middle of the green is always good. Recreational golfers won’t necessarily face pins in corners like we do at tournaments, but they still need to see the value of the middle of the green. You also need to accept how far you really hit or carry shots and not try to hit a club too hard, thinking ‘I’ve hit 6-iron 190 yards one time, I’m going to do that again’.
You should start simple, get the ball in the fairway and hit a lot of greens, and then you can start trying to fine-tune from there. If you’re just swinging hard and missing fairways, it’s going to be an uphill battle.
3. Bunker Play
My key with bunkers is an open face, so you’re exposing the sole of the club. Once it’s open, you need to have a weak top-hand grip, so that as you’re coming into the ball, you don’t have the ability to turn your wrist over and expose the leading edge to the sand. Your ball position needs to be very forward, if not off the front foot.
4. Green Reading
There are a number of systems that you can learn to simplify green reading, such as AimPoint or Vector. I don’t use these systems because I’ve always been a good green reader myself. A lot of it is just training your feet and your eyes and the repetition of hitting putts. Being able to roll the ball and get an accurate view and feedback of where it’s starting is important.
My key, though, for good green reading is reps. Put yourself in situations where you can say ‘Okay, this looks like it’s two cups out’, and then hit a putt to see if it truly does what you were thinking. On top of all that, make sure the speed on your putts is really good each time. If your speed is off, it doesn’t matter how good your reads are. You’ve got to be able to match the speed and the read.
5. Chipping
I see recreational golfers flick at the ball or try to help it up in the air, but with chipping, your lower body needs to be fairly stable and your head should not move until after impact. Sometimes you see people go a little too short on the backswing and try to accelerate, rather than going for more of a consistent tempo.
However fast and far you take it back, that’s where speed is coming from – it’s very similar to a putting stroke. It’s all tempo and rhythm on basic chip shots. However far you take it back and how fast, that’s basically what you’re going to be putting back into the ball. As soon as you start changing speeds, that throws off the connection of the hands and the club.
