Rickie Fowler is searching for his game … has he found it?

The hardest part is the uncertainty. Every other time Brandt Snedeker has been sidelined by an injury, like when he was on crutches after having hip surgery, not once, but twice, there was a target date to hold onto. In six weeks, the doctors would tell him, you’ll be hitting balls again. Or, maybe four, they’d say. But there was always a timeline so Snedeker could plan his PGA TOUR comeback. This issue with the manubrium joint in his chest is different, though. Doctors told him he had two options – rest and let it heal or have surgery to insert a metal plate attached to the upper and lower sternum. Snedeker, not surprisingly, chose rest. And therein lies the problem. Doctors can’t tell him definitively when he’ll have rested enough. It’s a wait-and-see proposition made more frustrating by the fact that otherwise, he feels fine. “It’s not restricting my everyday life whatsoever,� Snedeker says. “I’m able to work out. I’m able to do everything I want to do. It’s just the vibration of hitting golf balls that causes pain. “The only way I’m going to figure it out is hitting golf balls again and I need to try and give it as much time as possible to heal.� Snedeker tried to play through it. After all, the doctors told him he couldn’t do any more damage. But he had to withdraw from the Open Championship, the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA. And when he found himself almost flinching when he hit golf balls on the Sunday prior to the Wyndham Championship, Snedeker knew enough was enough. Even though he was ranked 57th in the FedExCup, which he won in 2012, the eight-time TOUR champ decided to call it a season. “You’ve got to be smart and not risk developing a huge problem in your golf game by trying to play through something for a few weeks,� Snedeker says. “It was just time to make sure I got healthy and figure out what was going on with my body. “The last thing I want to do is go out there and not be able to practice the way I want to practice and not put the time in and go through the motions, which is how you create bad habits and lose confidence. “And if you lose confidence at golf, it’s hard to get it back.� So, Snedeker hasn’t hit a golf ball in four weeks. He probably could chip and putt but he’s chosen not to because he doesn’t want to chance trying too much, too soon. “My biggest fear right now is setting myself back,� Snedeker says. He takes medication to try to get the inflammation in the joint to subside. He’s changed his diet an estimated 180 degrees, cutting out sugars and carbohydrates to help it calm down, too.   “It’s been pretty miserable, I’m not going to lie,� Snedeker says. “It’s no fun not being able to eat stuff I like to eat.� Snedeker also wears a bone stimulator for 30 or 40 minutes every day. He describes it as a wrap that goes around his chest. There’s a “halo-looking� device, he says, that sends electric currents into the joint to stimulate healing. “I am doing everything I can to get this thing to heal up and solidify but it’s just such a weird injury, freak thing to have happen,� he says. “With no real trauma to cause it, it’s been a head-scratcher for just about every doctor I’ve been to see.� While being on the sidelines has been difficult professionally, Snedeker has enjoyed the unexpected time with his wife Mandy and their two children, 6-year-old Lily and Austin, who turns 5 next month. He’s been able to devote more time to the Brandt and Mandy Snedeker Foundation that helps children in middle Tennessee, too. “It’s been great to be home with the kids and be a dad again and see what every day life’s been like for them,� Snedeker says. “But I think they’re probably getting tired of me by now.� His absence has not gone unnoticed on TOUR, either. So many of his peers have called and texted to check up on him that Snedeker says he’s been “overwhelmed.� And he’s kept up with his friends on TOUR as a spectator, watching the broadcasts on TV, even though it reminds him of what he’s missing. Snedeker hasn’t been surprised by what he’s seen in the first two Playoffs events. He expected Dustin Johnson, who won THE NORTHERN TRUST, to rise to the occasion in the Playoffs. “He kind of has ebbs and flows like that every year and I thought he was due for another good run,� he says. “It’s pretty impressive to watch … the way he played the back nine and made birdies when he had to.� And Jordan Spieth has been playing “unbelievable golf,� Snedeker says, contending just about every week. Justin Thomas’ rise hasn’t been lost on the 36-year-old, either. “One thing I always thought about Justin, if he ever figured out how to save those shots in a round, he was going to be tough to beat because he makes so many birdies and he’s such a dominant player when he’s playing like that,� Snedeker says. “I guess the switch kind of flipped over this year. “You don’t win a major championship being able to limit your mistakes and he’s kind of figured it out.� Snedeker won’t be playing the BMW Championship next week at Conway Farms for just the second time in the 11-year history of the FedExCup. Ditto for the TOUR Championship at East Lake, which he won in 2012 on the way to pocketing the $10 million bonus. So Snedeker knows all too well what he is missing. “Those are two of my favorite tournaments,� Snedeker says. “Conway’s a great test. … Seems like every year we’ve been there there’s always drama going on, on the last hole. “And East Lake’s such a cool place. It’s kind of bittersweet not being there. … It’s such a cool feeling being there in that event.� Sometime in the next two weeks, though, Snedeker will have an MRI that will hopefully enable him to put together a plan for his return to competition. But he’s not going to get ahead of himself. “It will be a slow process,� Snedeker explains. “It won’t be go hit balls today, play 18 tomorrow. It will be a ball count kind of thing try to see judge how the sternum is going to feel going back into full bore again. “Hopefully I’ll be better suited to handle the stress and the forces I put on my body when swinging a golf club.� And he’ll know when it’s time.

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OVERVIEW Justin Thomas spent the off-season testing new Titleist equipment; following Alabama football; tweeting about Tiger-versus-Phil; and looking forward to his new role as co-executive producer, with Rickie Fowler, of Golf Channel’s next installment of the college golf documentary Driven. When it’s time to lace up his spikes, though, you get the sense he’ll be ready. Thomas, 25, is coming off a season in which he won three times and made a deep run in the FedExCup Playoffs as he tried to become the first player to successfully defend his FedExCup title since its inception in 2007. He might have done it, too, but for a minor injury. Thomas “tweakedâ€� (his word) his right wrist on the 13th hole of the final round of the BMW Championship; taped it; worked only on his short game in the off-week; and could manage only a T7 at the TOUR Championship, leaving him 7th in the final FedExCup standings. Still, it was a strong effort; apart from week one of the season, he never dropped below ninth. “Anytime you win three times in a season, it’s still a pretty good season,â€� Thomas said at the CIMB Classic in October, when he finished T5 to kick off the 2018-19 season. “Obviously not winning a major was a big difference and not winning the FedExCup, but I played plenty well enough last year to win the same amount of times.â€� If there was a tournament he let slip through his fingers, it was the World Golf Championship-Mexico Championship, where he bogeyed the 172-yard 17th to lose to Phil Mickelson. – By Cameron Morfit Click here to see who else made the Top 30 list. BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 63rd Playoff appearances: 4 TOUR Championship appearances: 3 Best FedExCup result: Won the FedExCup in the 2016-17 season SHOTLINK FUN FACT Justin Thomas ranked third last season in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, outperforming the PGA TOUR field by +0.880 strokes per round. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Justin Thomas in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Thomas is an exceptionally good iron player; his challenge now will be to elevate the other parts of his game from very good to great in order to match his iron play. His other challenge will be to reconfigure his goals after winning his first major (2017 PGA Championship), first WGC (WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and first Presidents Cup over the last two seasons. The guess here is he’ll come up with something. — By Cameron Morfit FANTASY INSIDER: A year ago in this space (when he sat No. 1 fresh off winning the FedExCup), I advised caution in weekly formats due to his tendency to hit and miss more often than his peers. Not long thereafter, he cited himself that he wanted to eliminate the inconsistency. It sounded good in theory and gamers are all for improvement no matter the talent, but it’s still cringe-worthy because it can be like fixing what’s not broken. JT is a winner, pure and simple, but there are times when he’s just not feelin’ it, so be prepared to roll with those punches. He still warrants consideration to go first overall in draft leagues. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Thomas doesn’t tinker too much, but he was quick to switch into a new Titleist TS3 driver (9.5 degrees, with a Mitsubishi Diamana BF 60TX shaft) and a new Titleist TS3 fairway wood (Mitsubishi Tensei CK Blue 80TX shaft). The rest of his bag includes a 718 AP2 4-iron, 718 MB irons (5-9), his familiar Vokey SM5 (56 degrees) and SM6 wedges (48, 52 and 60 degrees) wedges, and the Scotty Cameron Circle T X5 putter he’s been playing since 2017. With a bag full of Titleist clubs, he also uses Titleist’s Pro V1x golf ball. Anytime Thomas decides to make a switch in 2019, whether it’s clubs, shafts or golf ball, it will be news. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: JT continues to hit all the right fashion notes. He excels at balancing the traditions of the game with classic threads and custom old school brogues with new school designs and fits. Look for Thomas to remain one of the best dressed players in the game in 2019. — By Greg Monteforte

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