Rickie Fowler’s playoff run sparked debate. It misses a bigger point

Rickie Fowler completed the T6 at last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship last week, and in the FedEx Cup ranking, Rickie Fowler went from No. 64 to No. 48. After the Open T14 match, these four-round stable rounds at TPC Southwind meant Fowler advanced to this week’s BMW Championship and won a spot in all signature events next year.

Fowler’s playoff progress reinspires the signature incident, its use and downstream impact, with its debate on sponsor exemptions. Fowler, who did not make the top 50 last year, received sponsor invitations to attend six signature events this season. The FedEx Cup points he earned in those games – most famously the T7 of the Memorial Championship, and then he entered the Open, where he finished the T14 – helped him play on the BMW championship and next year’s signature event list, rather than other players who are not as lucky as Fowler.

“I’m deeply grateful for this since I have several attractions this year until Jack’s event until Jack’s event, I really didn’t take advantage of a lot of opportunities,” Fowler said Sunday when asked about not having to give up next year. “It wasn’t great in either of them. Those elevated areas, maybe there are some points that I didn’t really get them. But it’s so nice to have a while this year and really don’t want to rely on that next year. Yes.

The Fowler discussion is a simple entry point for the conversation about the PGA Tour and how it goes/should work, when Fowler beat Chris Kirk, Alrdrich Potgieter, etc. and missed something.

On the surface, it is easy to say that signature events should not be exempted from sponsors. In a perfect world, based solely on merit, this would be the best 70-100 players. Maybe they should offer FedEx Cup points to those exempted unless they win. Maybe you should only have one year exemption to be eligible, but not in successive seasons.

But this is not the world we live in, and certainly not the world of the PGA Tour, which relies on sponsors to host tournaments.

Like all other sports leagues, the PGA Tour is in entertainment, and more importantly, the focus karma.

My colleague James Colgan wrote an interesting article last week on how golf learns from Roger Goodell and the NFL to adopt their business model. They are looking for attention. The goal is to grab it and keep it 24/7/365.

The PGA Tour has a much smaller scope, but with new CEO Brian Rolapp, who is second in the NFL in Goodell, Hunt to Hunt for Goate will be more prioritized in Ponte Vedra, Florida.

This led us to participate in signature events, sponsor waivers and Fowler, among others.

If X Company (whether it’s RBC or AT&T or anyone) is going to pay X millions of dollars to play the best players on the PGA Tour, they want to have the ability to invite three or four people, and they are not qualified to bring more eyeballs to the game, it’s a perfectly acceptable deal. I hate being the carrier of bad news, but there are inequality in golf and every aspect of life. Sometimes, when you prefer it, have a long history of easy-to-use and are good at your job, you have more opportunities than others who may be higher than you are currently on the go.

Fowler brought the eye. People like him and see when he will participate. The kids still dress up like him and come out to follow him. The same thing can’t be said for most players who have entered BMW. That’s not fair, but it’s life. Next year, tournament sponsors will launch the red carpet for Jordan Spieth and Max Homa, two other popular players who have not made the top 50 this year. It is a fair trade-off for a world that tries to shrink its main population in a shorter and shorter attention span. And if Fowler is doing well enough in these games – he is currently the 38th player in every data golf – it can help him into the top 50, which is a good thing for the PGA Tour.

But I think that in Fowler’s words, other things have been lost because it’s easy to pierce Fowler due to bright clothes and boring press conferences and lots of ads.

Fowler doesn’t have to hold this position. Instead of polishing on the PGA Tour, he tries to regain the magic he once had. He was like Justin Rose, who won the FedEx St. Jude championship, who could have easily cashed in on Liv Golf when his game was at its lowest level and crossed the sunset. He could have been content with his previous satisfaction and decided that the hone of being Rickie Fowler again was no longer worth it.

Like a rose, Fowler chose a different path. He chose to try to dig it out. He returned to the winner circle on 2023 Rocket Classic. His game fell again last year, but he has been playing back this summer to play golf.

For Fowler, it was part of professional golf, and endless searches were still filled with his soul.

“I like grated,” Fowler said at the John Deere Classic. “Those who have succeeded in the ups and downs, you’ll be grateful for the tough times because they help define you.”

Fowler expanded Tuesday in the Cave Valley in front of the BMW Championship.

“It’s been a lot of hard times now, and if you look at the past five or six years, I have a lot of highs and I’ve seen lows,” Fowler said. Tough times are sure to make you feel appreciated when you perform well, and when golf looks easy, yes, you want to appreciate these because you know they won’t last forever, so you can take advantage of those people when possible. But I think this is part of what some of us come out here – most of the time, everyone is here – I don’t know that there are so many of us, but you will never perfect. When you least expect it, you may bring back reality. ”

So Fowler is one of the most popular faces in golf in the past 15 years, and he is still looking and fighting to try to get beyond daylight and build his body again. Like Rose, chasing still means something, which is still important, and it is admirable.

There is no argument that the sponsor’s invitation Fowler received helped him into the top 50. Indeed, he had to perform well in the memorial and open championships to earn these points. He also had to top Memphis to get to BMW.

But like it or not, Fowler’s inclusion in these games offers a bigger purpose for the PGA Tour. Fowler helped move the mission forward for a sport desperately trying to get buzz and get people’s attention.

Rickie Fowler’s presence is good for the PGA Tour. Long-term revival would be better.

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