Rickie Fowler split with his longtime caddie Joe Skovron in August, and it hasn’t taken long for his former bagman to find success elsewhere. Skovron now caddies for Tom Kim, who won last week’s Children’s Shriners Open, and that's something Fowler's delighted about.
Fowler is preparing for this week’s Zozo Championship, which he’s appearing in thanks to a sponsors invitation. However, before his thoughts turn to the matter at hand, he offered his congratulations to Kim and Skovron. He said: “A big congrats to Joe on a win last week, obviously him being on Tom's bag. That was cool to see. Tom's a special player, but obviously happy for Joe as well."
Video: Things You Didn't Know About Rickie Fowler
Skovron and Fowler enjoyed huge initial success when the pair teamed up in 2009, and in 2014 the American finished inside the top five in all four Majors. However, he hasn’t won a tournament since 2019, and finally, a parting of the ways came before the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He’s since turned to Ricky Romano, and, last month, he made another change, returning to coach Butch Harmon after splitting with John Tillery as he bids to recapture his old form.
Despite missing last week's cut at the TPC Summerlin event his former caddie excelled in, Fowler is convinced he is on the right track. He said: “I'm very happy, excited about the partnership with me and Ricky on my bag. I feel like we work really well together. Being back with Butch and I think keeping things fairly simple but some pretty significant changes, but to see the results in Napa, that was a big step forward. Yeah, just very kind of, like I said, excited about knowing where we're at and where we're heading.”
Fowler fared much better in last month’s PGA Tour season opener, the Fortinet Championship at Silverado, finishing tied for sixth. That suggested better times are ahead, and he explained his former coach was partly to thank for his improvement. He said: “I feel like over the last three years with Tillery has put me actually in a very good position to make some little changes and I have - coming from Tillery, I feel like I have a great foundation. Unfortunately, the play over the last few years didn't really reflect that and so that was a bummer that it just really wasn't working out, but a lot of good things with Butch.
Fowler then went into further detail, explaining how Harmon has already helped improve his swing. He said: “One of the big things is kind of a steeper left arm plane, which ultimately gets my hands higher at the top and the club in a better position, gives me more room and space and makes the swing a bit more efficient.”
Fowler is currently World No.160 after reaching a career high of World No.4 in 2016. Despite his setback in Las Vegas last week, he will be hoping to build on his performance in Napa before that, beginning this week as he plots a path back towards the top of the Official World Golf Ranking.
