GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – Rickie Fowler’s spot in the FedEx St. Jude Championship came by the slimmest of margins. It wasn’t secure until Sunday evening. The first round at TPC Southwind also was Fowler’s first since splitting with the caddie he’d had for his entire professional career. The perfect recipe for Fowler’s best round in nearly a year, right? It wouldn’t seem so, but he shot 65 on Thursday to perhaps start a Cinderella run through the Playoffs. Thursday’s round was Fowler’s lowest score on the PGA TOUR since a third-round 63 in THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT in October. His third-place finish there was his lone top-10 of the season and accounted for half his FedExCup points. It was still enough to earn the final spot in the Playoffs after missing out for the first time in his career last year. His presence at the Playoffs opener seemed unlikely after he missed the cut at last week’s Wyndham Championship but the final 36 holes played out in his favor, as he finished eight points ahead of Matt Wallace for the 125th spot in the FedExCup standings. With his Playoffs fate out of his control, Fowler didn’t watch the Wyndham Championship’s final round. He played a casual round Sunday at Michael Jordan’s The Grove XXIII in South Florida, occasionally checking the PGA TOUR app to see his FedExCup standing. Now that he’s in, he has nothing left to lose. He was projected to move to the cusp of the top 70 in the FedExCup standings and needs no worse than an 11th-place finish to crack the top 70 and advance to next week’s BMW Championship at Wilmington (Del.) Country Club. It’s been three years since he last qualified for the BMW. “Being 125, obviously need to play well to just make it to next week,” said Fowler, who had Cobra tour rep Ben Schomin on the bag Thursday. “Kind of leave it all out there, see what happens, but definitely happy with the start, especially with not making a whole lot.” Fowler made five birdies, an eagle at the par-5 16th and two bogeys to sit three shots off the lead of Si Woo Kim and J.J. Spaun after the morning wave. Fowler missed just one fairway and hit 13 greens; he gained around two strokes on the field with both his play off the tee and approaching the greens. Fowler, who led the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting five years ago and was 13th in that stat in 2019, gained just 0.2 strokes on the greens Thursday. A 12-footer was the longest putt he made all day. He had a new putter in the bag this week, a Scotty Cameron Newport Plus that is slightly wider than the traditional Newport head. It was the latest putter switch for Fowler, who has cycled through several flatsticks this season. The most recent switch came two weeks ago, when he switched back to a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS that had come from a set of heads once reserved for Tiger Woods. Fowler first used the club in 2014. “There was a lot of good out there today. Actually, a lot of really good putts,” Fowler said. “Left a couple short, but other than that, some of it was just a little off on read.” The margins are small on the PGA TOUR. Fowler knows that as well as anyone this week.
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