Rickie Fowler said he was shaking the rust off his game last week in Las Vegas, and it might just be in time to shine at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Fowler is the 8/1 favorite to win the tournament in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for a couple of reasons.
The first is his performance here last year. The 29-year-old finished second, a shot behind winner, Patton Kizzire. At the time it was the third time in 11 starts that Fowler was the runner up. He has 13 second-place finishes in his career, including at last year’s Masters.
He hasn’t won since the Honda Classic in February 2017, but though it bothers him, he isn’t overly concerned. He told reporters at last week’s Shriners Open that he likes the direction his game is going.
“I’m happy with it. I didn’t play a whole lot of golf the last four weeks,” Fowler said. “Really just kind of rested up and enjoyed some time at home. I have a Foresight simulator in there and hit some wedges in the yard. Played a little bit of golf. Nice to see things come together and looking forward to next week.”
Strong Opening Tournament
Fowler chose Las Vegas to begin his year, and though he said his game wasn’t completely sharp, he managed to finish fourth.
“It was nice to kind of shake a bit of rust off every day,” Fowler said about his performance at the Shriner’s Open. (Sunday) was the best everything has felt all together. Putted better. And irons and driver were good all week, but made some good up and downs. Definitely happy about it.”
Now he returns to a golf course he is familiar with, and had success at, in Le Camaleon Golf Club.
Yeah, I’m excited to get back down there,” Fowler said. “Had a great time last year finishing second. It’s a great golf course. Got to keep the ball in play. There is a lot of hazards and trouble around that course.
Jordan Spieth Fighting Off Distraction
Jordan Spieth is the third choice this week at 14/1, behind Tony Finau (12/1), and the favored Fowler. Spieth has been winless since the 2017 Open Championship and finished tied for 55th at the Shriners.
Overall, just the improvement in moving the right direction, especially around the short game. This was kind of a trial run with stuff I’ve been working on for only about a week and a half.
“It was solid,” Spieth said. “I’ll go into next week confident. I played a lot better than I scored, and that happens sometimes.”
As if Spieth doesn’t have enough to think about in trying to end a 16-month winless streak, he has an upcoming wedding to his high school sweetheart in a couple of weeks. His bride to be has already given him a honey do list, and the first order of business was debachelorizing his home, which has housed several roommates over the years.
“They are all out of the house,” Spieth said. “I’m finally living alone for the first time in six years, at least for another couple of weeks.”