THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Rickie Fowler to the BMW Championship. You're coming off a T6 finish last week in Memphis, which moved you up just enough to get here. How proud are you of that effort and what it's like to be here?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it's definitely nice to be back to, one, just getting into our post season of the Playoffs and then getting to move on to a second week. Yeah, knew what I needed to do last week, and nice to kind of -- it was good enough. It would have been nice to maybe give myself a chance to get into that playoff or have a chance to win, but kind of the main goal last week was to have a tee time this week.
Definitely happy with that, and like I said, happy to be here.
Q. Have you had a chance to see the golf course and what are your first impressions?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's a big place. It's a good walk. Probably best for you guys to stay in here as much as you can. You don't have to go way out there as much. Driving range is fairly close.
Yeah, it's a good walk. I played 18 this morning, so going to be a full day. But it's a really cool place, cool piece of property with what they've done here because I was here back in -- we did a Walker Cup practice back here quite a while ago and the place has changed quite a bit from then. Obviously it has changed since the BMW was here a few years back, which I was not a part of.
Again, good to be here this week and back in the second stage of our post season Playoffs.
Q. Can you just share the state of your game as you try to make it to East Lake next week?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I need another really good week. I don't know the exact numbers of all the ifs, ands or buts, but I know I need to play well, and I'll see if we can do that. It worked out, like we talked about, last week, and we've been trending and heading in the right direction, and it would be nice to extend the season a little bit more.
We'll focus on just going and playing some good golf and getting ourselves in contention.
Q. Having gone through some kind of ups and downs in your game over the last couple years, do you relish these runs when you're consistently contending and playing well like you have the last month or two?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, well, I appreciate you calling it a run because I haven't even considered it a run yet. I'm kind of just getting going. It's been nice to have some good finishes and start to at least head the right direction, and kind of with the timing in the season.
But yeah, going through plenty of tough years now, if you look over the last five, six years, I've had plenty of highs and I've seen the lows.
The tough times definitely make you appreciate when you are playing well and when golf can seem easy, yeah, you appreciate those because you know they're not going to last forever, so take advantage of those when you can.
But I think that's part of why some of us out here are -- all the guys out here for the most part, I don't know why we love it so much, but it's the grind of it. You can never perfect it. There's been a few guys that have gotten close, but I feel like it always humbles you and kind of brings you back to reality maybe when you least expect it.
Q. Kind of an underrated thing about making it to East Lake is you get that extra year of membership kind of tacked on. At this stage when you have been up and down a little bit, is that something you think about, just locking in another year of status?
RICKIE FOWLER: Not necessarily. I mean, yeah, those are bonuses, and there's a lot of things that you want to achieve or want to accomplish, but kind of coming from where we've been, struggling at times, kind of keeping the initial goals fairly simple or attainable and reachable to start out with, and those kind of start piling on as you knock one or two or three off.
But yeah, there's bigger goals that are -- we want to take care of those, but we're still working on some of the low-hanging fruit to start with.
Q. As you have gone through -- so much success early on in your career. I don't know if it seemed easy. It may have felt easy at times. To then get to the challenges that have come later, could you have envisioned that early on, and what have you learned from it?
RICKIE FOWLER: No, it's never easy. There was definitely plenty of years where we had success, and I think some of it, too, is dealing with the structure and game out here has also changed and evolved over the years. The way the TOUR was set up when I first came out is different from where things are now. I feel like the game is a little bit different from 2010, '12 and then moving on to 2020 into where we are currently. So you have to kind of change or evolve with it or you're going to get left behind.
It's been fun. I wouldn't be here doing it and chasing it and grinding if I didn't love the game in general but to try and get the best out of myself and to go compete week in and week out.
Yeah, I love the grind, so it's been fun. But like we talked about earlier, the struggles -- after I went through kind of the first bit of it, '21, '22 and then playing well in '23, looking back, sometimes the tough years or those downtimes, you enjoy those. Maybe not necessarily in the moment because they do suck, but that's when I feel like you learn the most and you get the most satisfaction when you kind of overcome those hurdles or those times. So tough going through it, but looking back, they've been some of the most rewarding times to have gone through that.
Q. Do you feel like you're playing with house money, just happy to be here and fire away, or do you just treat it like any tournament where you just do the best you can?
RICKIE FOWLER: A little bit of both. Obviously you want to come here and play well. But in a way, like you said, kind of house money or back against the wall. I have to play well to move on, so it's not like, hey, if you finish 30th, you get to go into next week. No, you need to go play well.
It's pretty simple. Sometimes that can be easier than, hey, well, if you finish in a two-way tie for 32nd, all of a sudden you shoot a few over the first couple days and you're like, oh, s---.
Like I said, I know what I need to do. Coming off of having some good weeks and playing well last week, obviously playing against the best players in the world, so it'll be tough, but I like where I'm at and I like my chances going in.
Q. Did you know going into Memphis the bare minimum you needed to have a chance, and did you want to?
RICKIE FOWLER: I had an idea. I didn't know all the full calculations, but I knew it basically needed to be -- it basically needed to be a top 10, and there was some wiggle room of like a tie for whatever, can't be too much, and I knew kind of going into Sunday that it potentially could come down to me and Kirky playing together if we were around a similar spot and tied. I knew he was ahead of me on points going in.
There's so many variables with how the points work and based on how other guys finish and if they make a birdie and how many points they get and the shuffling. To kind of get back to answer your question, I had a general idea of what I needed to do, and luckily it was just good enough.
Q. Secondly, what were some of your top goals going into the year, and did any of those goals change as the year went on?
RICKIE FOWLER: Going into years, there's always -- you want to go win, get in contention. For me, yeah, that was general. A lot of it was just making cuts, getting in contention, going and playing tournaments and stringing together and kind of trying to build on things. Looking farther would be, yeah, top 50 was a goal. It got a little closer than I would have liked to have been in a comfortable spot.
You always look at TOUR Championship or East Lake as a goal. Ryder Cup was pretty far out there. That's still a long ways out there. I need to play some good golf this week to extend my potential to sneak into even be in the conversation.
But those are kind of all general goals. Like I was talking about earlier, kind of starting with, hey, let's go out and -- tee times on a weekend are good out here, and kind of continue to build off those little things.
Q. How much did making it this far change the way you'll schedule tournaments in the fall?
RICKIE FOWLER: We'll see. I love to play. I love to compete. I know I've talked about health stuff, my body feeling decent. I'll need to do some little bit of rest and recovery, so depending on when I get that time, that's kind of my priority this fall.
But being able to play the way I did last week to get into this week, that secures a lot of things for me next year, so going back to the fall, I'm not sure what or how much I'll do. I would love to go play a bunch, but I need to work on the body side of it first to make sure I can go play a bunch next year.
Q. You've been in a lot of Ryder Cups under quite a few captains. If you were making the choices, what would you be looking for these next two weeks from guys?
RICKIE FOWLER: Obviously you want guys that are playing well or are trending that way. I mean, two big things at Bethpage, obviously you'd like to look at all the stats and all the guys being top in those categories, but I feel like driving the ball well is something that is very beneficial or needed at Bethpage, and obviously putting when it comes to match play. To me those are the two areas I feel like seeing how guys are doing in those spots -- I can't remember all the guys that are necessarily in the mix of all that, but current form, but if you're diving into it, I think the driving and the putting are probably the two biggest parts for me that I would look at for a place like Bethpage.
Q. Is there a specific part of your game that you feel like has really come on recently that's allowed the performances to be the way they have?
RICKIE FOWLER: I feel like swing and ball-striking has continued to kind of get better. I think some of just trying to keep things as simple as possible. It seems easy to explain, but simple as far as not trying to do too much or not trying to be too perfect, kind of taking what I have. I've been doing a good job of just managing my way around the golf course.
Last week is a spot where you need to wear out fairways and greens, and I feel like we did a good job of that. That's about as -- that's the way you make that golf course as easy as possible. So that's probably more the mental and the management side has been a big part.
Q. Have you caught yourself trying to be too perfect at times recently?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I think it definitely happens. Everyone can do it or get caught up in it at times. You kind of look back like why did I try and do that. It's a lot easier when you're walking up. You've hit a poor shot or not executed and you're like, all I have to do is just hit this right here.
Sometimes you get a little caught up in, like, drawing the perfect picture and trying to execute and how do I hit it close, and you end up bringing maybe bogey or double into play when from the outside looking in, it's like, why wouldn't he just hit it here. So sometimes it's getting yourself to step back and not be in the full, like, offensive aggressive at all times.
Q. Patrick was just in here and he said if he were Keegan Bradley the captain, he would pick Keegan Bradley the player, says he's one of the top 12 guys. What's your thoughts on how he's playing and position?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I would pick him too. I think it would be hard to find really any or many Americans that would argue that point. We'll see. I know he's maybe getting to the area of the 10, 11 number on points of where he may think, like, is this a spot where I should not pick myself. I feel like a lot of times there's really only one or two that maybe fluctuate based off of people that were maybe inside the top 12 on points that maybe don't get picked.
Like I said, I don't think you're going to find any or many Americans that are going to argue that he shouldn't be on the team.
Q. I'm curious, next week at East Lake where all 30 guys who make it, all you have to do is win the tournament to be the FedExCup champion, does that make them the season-long champion or the FedExCup champion, and what's the difference?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, depending on how you word it, you're winning the TOUR Championship, the FedExCup, just kind of making it all one. To me, the season long is a bit more of finishing up the season at -- my view on it would be like Scottie obviously being -- I think he was up by nearly almost three wins if you looked at points, and that would be the season-long points, and then the Playoffs become the -- it's the Playoffs of -- it's not always whoever had the best season necessarily wins throughout the Playoffs, similar to throughout other sports.
It'll be interesting to see this year with everyone starting at zero. To us it seemed obviously a lot easier to follow versus back trying to figure out all the points stuff and based off if someone makes 4 here or make 5 then these people could go to this spot and this guy goes up here. Or with the strokes, that was always confusing because you always had a regular tournament going on, meanwhile there was the staggered start and you had guys who actually won the tournament for world ranking points while there was something else, playing for the TOUR Championship or the FedExCup.
This seems like everyone is starting at zero, it's simple, and it'll kind of be just a battle to the finish.
Q. Can you talk about your team and your routine in between tournaments, what's worked for you this year and what you've enjoyed out of that, especially with this ramp-up now when it's back-to-back tournaments?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I think for me, a little bit of consistency is good or has been good with me on body and stuff I've dealt with. When I've taken time off or too much time, it almost makes things worse.
At the same time, not doing too much or overworking myself.
Between time spent in the gym, that being kind of aware of, like I said, not doing too much, and especially through the last few months of the summer, you still want to conserve energy, start getting some places that can be warm. If I'm going to do longer days, it's typically Mondays or Tuesdays, kind of space that out from tournament days.
Yeah, it's tough. There's a lot to try and squeeze in on prep days and then tournament days and then also spending time with the family and having them on the road.
But all we have to do is hit a golf ball, so it's not that bad. It's just managing the different parts, and everyone is different. I do what I feel like is best for me. From here, I'm going to go get in the gym for a little bit and get some therapy and then we have a PAC meeting after that. I teed off at 8:00 this morning, so this was a pretty good day.
Luckily it was just a good walk around Caves Valley. I'm not complaining. But yeah, it's part of it.
I think, like I said, for me it's kind of the management and making sure that I'm not overloading.
Q. How has it been to have your family travel with you throughout this and the balance of all that?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's great to have the family with me. Really the only ones, the girls basically stay in the States. They didn't go over to Northern Ireland. But to be able to travel as a family hopefully for at least a couple more years before school really starts going, we'll take advantage of that while we can.
It's definitely fun to -- we rent houses for the most part, so to have a sense of normalcy. They're pretty well-traveled. I think our one-year-old, I can't remember the exact number, she's at like 15 or 16 different states now. Both well-traveled, so hopefully that'll serve them well later. But they're used to the one week somewhere and off to the next.
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