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ORLANDO, Fla. - Rickie Fowler and Viktor Hovland have been sharing the same longitude and latitude this week, each competing at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. However, as recent journeys go, they have been on different trains bound for different places. Hovland, 23, is the red-hot wunderkind not far removed from Oklahoma State. He is riding one of those sizzling golf tears where nearly every bounce seems to go right, and he finds himself in contention once again as the API moves into the weekend at Bay Hill Club and Lodge. (At 7-under 137, Hovland trails leader Corey Conners by two shots.) Hovland has been a rocket ship in the Official World Golf Ranking. He was ranked 100th just more than a year ago, and now he is 13th. He smiles a lot, and for good reason. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Day's tee shot gets stuck in tree, takes one-shot penalty Certainly Fowler, now 32 and a five-time winner on the PGA TOUR, can relate to Hovland's success. Fowler is one of a long line of Cowboys standouts paving a path to the PGA TOUR for Oklahoma State players such as Hovland and Matthew Wolff. Fowler has been struggling. Searching. Tinkering. He and swing coach John Tillery have been making changes. Fowler knows exactly where he wants to be - contending in majors (four top-5 finishes in 2014), making U.S. cup teams, winning big titles (such as THE PLAYERS Championship six years ago) … because he has been there. He is working as doggedly at home as he ever has, long hours, sacrificing, waiting and hoping to see results. And still waiting. Hovland and Fowler were in the same group along with Aussie Jason Day the last two days at Arnie's Place. Hovland made seven birdies and shot 4-under 68. Hovland is riding a stretch of six top-6 or better finishes in his last seven starts. Fowler needed a chip-in for birdie at his final hole on Thursday just to shoot 76. Friday's goal to sneak back inside the cutline never was going to be easy. But he'd do what Arnold Palmer would do. His head was down Friday, and he got after it. When Fowler rinsed a tee shot at the dogleg par-4 third hole (his 12th) on Friday, he ballooned to 5 over for the tournament. He appeared destined for another disheartening week in a frustrating stretch of them. Coming in, Fowler had missed three cuts in his last six starts. But he is a fighter, and birdies coming home at Nos. 4 (28 feet), 5 (42 feet) and 6 (2 feet) at least gave him a chance. Fowler, who sports shirts and hats and shoes honoring Palmer when he plays here, had missed the cut only once in nine starts at the API; he made 118 feet of putts in a round of 70. At 2-over 146, he headed to lunch not knowing if he'd be working this weekend. He longed for two more rounds at Bay Hill to find some traction, some momentum. Something positive. "Things are definitely moving the right way," said Fowler, once No. 4 in the world, now ranked 65th. "Just had a couple swings that cost me. But I’m happy with it. It’s getting closer and closer, so we'll see if we get a tee time tomorrow. If we do, we’ll go play like hell this weekend. If not, we’ll go get ready for our tee time next Thursday (at THE PLAYERS)." Peter Malnati had a chance to knock out all the players at plus-2 late Friday, but made double-bogey at 18 and missed the cut himself. Fowler was in on the number. A needed break. More than a year removed from his last top 10 (2020 American Express), Fowler doesn't hide the fact that golf these days is more work than fun. He made five consecutive West Coast starts, something he hadn't done since he was a rookie. When he is home, he stays dedicated to his craft. The days he takes off are only to give his 5 foot 9, 150-pound body a rest. "It’s definitely been a grind," Fowler said. "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 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. You know what you’re capable of, and where you should be - or what you expect out of yourself. "So that’s been more of the struggle, 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." Funny how life works sometimes. As he was grinding just to make a cut, Fowler didn't need to look very far to see the level of play to which he wants to return. Hovland isn't "walking" around Bay Hill this week; he is floating across the grounds at Arnie's Place, his game honed and sharp. Sure, he could hit a few more fairways (8 of 14 Friday), but most everything is working. It doesn't matter if you are 23 or 32; Hovland and Fowler know that golf is cyclical, and hot golf can be fleeting. So when you have it going, you make the most of it. Good golf exists on razor-thin margins. Fowler was greenside in a bunker in two shots at the par-5 12th and walked away with bogey; Hovland came up short on the par- 3 seventh and holed his bunker shot from 10 yards. Birdie. "Yeah, it’s been very fun," Hovland said. "Obviously playing very good and I don’t feel like I have that many holes in my game anymore, which is cool, because I missed plenty of greens out there today (seven) and I still shot 68, even made a bunker shot and got some really cool up-and-downs. Walking from the fairway over to the rough wherever I was hitting from, after missing the green, I would have been anxious the whole way … But now it’s like, ‘All right, I’ll be all right. Even if I make a bogey here I can birdie the next.' So it’s just a very relaxed kind of attitude. It’s a lot easier when you’re playing well. You just kind of let it all happen." Therein lies the difference. One guy is just kind of letting it happen right now. The other is trying to make something happen. Fowler has viewed it from both sides. At Bay Hill on Friday, you needed to watch only one grouping to see the contrast. Rickie Fowler is working hard, and said he is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. No, he isn't there yet. That's the magical journey of golf.

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Nick Taylor is not from a town as small as Humboldt, Saskatchewan, but he knows what it’s like for a tight-knit community to come together. Taylor, from Abbotsford, British Columbia, will be donating $500 for every birdie – and $1,000 for every eagle – he makes this week at the RBC Heritage to the GoFundMe page set up by the small Canadian town as it recovers from a horrific tragedy less than a week ago A bus carrying 28 people – players of the Humboldt Broncos (a hockey team from the town of approximately 5,500 about 4 1/2 hours from the U.S. border) along with support staff and coaches – collided with a transport truck. Fifteen people were killed and the remaining 13 were injured, some still in critical condition. Taylor, who teed off at 8:40 a.m. ET Thursday, said the initiative was a no-brainer. “Not that I need more motivation to win a tournament, but to have this in there to help out is something else,� he said. “I know the support they’ve already had on the GoFundMe page has been incredible, so for me to get some golf fans to maybe throw some money in there … anything helps, and that’s the mentality.� The GoFundMe page was originally set up by two members of the community to help pay for parking for the parents of the victims (the junior hockey team featured players aged 16-20) and buy some coffee and donuts, with a moderate goal at first. Online fundraising efforts have since reached more than $8.1 million ($6.4 million U.S.), making it the most successful GoFundMe campaign in Canada, and the third-most successful in the platform’s history. Taylor, who played hockey for about five years until he was 15 years old, said he never got to the level of hockey where he would be traveling around, but he enjoyed it a lot growing up. In talking to people who have lived with another family while playing for a team away from home – like many members of the Humboldt Broncos – Taylor said that community would be so close. “There’s a huge family network in hockey life,� he explained. Graham DeLaet has not yet returned to action on the PGA TOUR after a procedure on his back in January, but he is from Weyburn, Saskatchewan – about 3 1/2 hours from Humboldt – and has ties to the area. When wildfires raged through Fort McMurray, Alberta in 2016, it was DeLaet who originally challenged his fellow Canadian TOUR pros, including Taylor, to donate to the recovery efforts there. Corey Connors is also in the RBC Heritage field and has #HumboldtStrong on his cap and is marking his ball with “HB.� Although Taylor’s hometown is much larger than Humboldt, it only has a population of 141,000. Both he and Adam Hadwin played out of the same golf club growing up, so that special moment was a big deal in their community. On the other end of the spectrum is this terribly sad event, he says, but he knows what it’s like to have a whole town rally around a singular event. “In a town of that size, everyone knows each other even more,� he said. Taylor is 66th on TOUR in total birdies in 2017-18 with 151. He’s made two eagles so far, and is hoping to increase that total at Harbour Town Golf Links this week. He finished T22 last year, shooting 69-66 in the first two rounds. It was his best result at the RBC Heritage. He comes into the week having missed his last three cuts, but said he put in a lot of hard work on a handful of “little things� that were adding up to some big misses of late. He said he feels refreshed, is ready to go on a good run, and is excited for a good week for both himself and the small Saskatchewan community that has been impacted in a big way. “It seems like the whole hockey world, the whole country of Canada and even in the U.S. has rallied (for Humboldt),� he said. “It’s been pretty amazing, the rally around it.�

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