Rickie Fowler’s Take on Golf’s Future at Rocket Classic

Join Rickie Fowler at the 2025 Rocket Classic press conference as he dives into the art of golf course design! 🏌️‍♂️ Rickie shares his thoughts on combining old-school techniques with modern drainage solutions to create the perfect playing experience. Reflecting on the iconic Detroit course and his approach to the 2025 season, he offers a glimpse into how tradition and innovation can work hand in hand in golf. Don’t miss this engaging conversation with one of the PGA Tour’s fan favorites! ⛳ #RickieFowler #RocketClassic #Golf2025 #PGATour

all right everybody we’d like to welcome Ricky Fowler into the interview room here at the 2025 Rocket Classic ricky this is a tournament that’s uh close to your heart you haven’t missed one um what’s so special about it for you uh you know for me having the partnership with Rocket which you know back you know a while back was Quick and Loans tournament was based in the DC area and um you know seeing that that partnership continue to grow and kind of hear about this dream from from them and wanting a tournament to ultimately end up in Detroit um it seemed like a I wouldn’t say a big ask but you know it’s a big move and but that’s where you know Rockets’s based up here and then roots in Detroit so to see that all come to fruition and be a part of you know the event starting here in Detroit um through a few different rebrandings from from Quick and Logan Quick and Loans to Rocket Mortgage and now we’re at Rocket um and to see this event grow um see the the the fan and talent support um that we’ve that’s grown over the years and then also what Rocket you know and the the Rocket families have been able to do uh with kind of helping rebuild Detroit um so like I said it’s just been great to be a part of and and fun to be you know back this week you’re a six-time winner on the tour and your last of those six came here in 23 what do you need to do to to get over the line again and be a repeat winner here um play play good golf um you know been close and and seeing a lot of good things and uh nice to be in a position where you know my body’s starting to feel a bit better and starting to see some some results and you know being in final group at Colonial having a decent week at at Memorial um you’re never as far off as you think you might be and um it’s it’s tough out here um it’s it’s a very fine line but um no I know I’m I’m plenty good enough to win um eliminate some mistakes and hopefully see some putts go in we’ll we’ll have ourselves a good chance this week all right we’ll take some questions uh just raise your hand and we’ll we’ll get started on this idea hey Ricky how the course played today and especially someone played this course quite often some of the trees have been removed with this restoration effort but what was your feel on the course today uh I mean with the rain we got yesterday um you know unfortunately it’s it’s pretty soft out there um it’d be nice if we can dodge the the rest of the moisture through the week um you know starting to dry out a little bit yesterday before the the storm came through um with with the restoration on the back end of this week um it’d be fun to see it stay dry and and see this place kind of bake out and get firm and you know typically we’ve had storms and wet conditions here and you know that’s why you know you see scores be very low with how receptive the course and the greens can be um so I’m I’m hopeful we can get some some drier conditions um but right now it’s um very scorable and it’s not quite still water but you’re in Detroit pretty often participating in in the Rocket Classic what are some things that you do just get away decompress uh and things that you like about uh I mean spending a little bit of time downtown um you know stayed down at the Shyola and and and been around in the downtown area a bit getting up to Birmingham um you know tournament week I really don’t have a bunch of extra you know time uh we we usually stay out here in a house um we’ll have a chef with us have the family so it’s it’s much more just go back to the house hang out with the family um that’s kind of the decompress and relax um you know it’s a bit more it’s a it’s a work week um luckily we enjoy our work and so a lot of time just spent here at the course and then you know with family and and you know since we we do get to travel as a family still thanks all right we’ll go to Jimmy strong finishes for you over the last two months anything specific in your game that’s changed uh I mean a lot of it’s just body starting to feel a bit better um you know I don’t think we’re any of us are ever at a you know 100% out here if you can somehow manage to stay in the 75 to 80% healthwise that’s that’s a good spot um so been working on that and um I think that’s been one of the biggest things is getting back into a spot where you know feeling pretty good and um allowing myself to go play golf and as we head towards the end of the season a lot of attention turning towards the FEM cup standings entering this week you come in at 69 afraid to kind of that cup offer Memphis is that something you’re thinking about at all and would it mean a lot more to you to make it to the playoffs especially with the new tour championship format this season yeah I mean that’s everyone’s aware of where they stand and then you know the numbers and where we’re at in the season and it’s it’s good to be in a position where I’ve been heading the right direction and starting to see some some good results and um so I’m excited you know with this week and uh next week and then see kind of how those go to dictate what I may do after uh the British uh cuz it’s there’s a fine line obviously you want to go play well and and earn some points but make sure there’s enough to where you’re you’re still fresh to to go play in you know postseason or the playoffs um but if we need to play we’re going to play uh any new stickers on the water bottle uh they rotate i think the newest is my uh inside the ropes access TV sticker so water bottle has access now all right we’ll just uh we’ll get you a microphone in just a second we’ll come to you thank you uh just uh playing with Jay and uh Grant today um so I’m sure you hammered out an extension for the Rocky Mortgage Rocky Plazet to continue beyond this um what do you think the tournament needs to do as far as you know the the you know agreeing between the tour and rocket as far as u you know making sure that the tour surv the tournament survives past next year well I think I I stay out of the the numbers side of it or the going too deep into it but I know with you know myself and the partnership and like I talked about earlier being a part of you know starting with it being Quick and Loans to Rocket Mortgage to now Rocket um you know the the dream when the tournament used to be you know based in the DC area the dream was to get you know tournament to Detroit um and to see that all come together and see how this tournament has grown um and now with golf course renovation I feel like there’s there’s a lot of time and um effort invested to to having this tournament be what it’s become um so yeah I know there’d be a lot of people that would be you know disappointed if if this wasn’t something that could continue on um I’ve I’ve definitely enjoyed the partnership and enjoyed you know getting to you know spend time in Detroit and get to know more about Detroit um cuz this is you know part of the country where we don’t get to a whole lot um there’s there’s only a few tournaments up in this general area um so yeah I I stay out of like I said I stay out of the details but I definitely enjoy being out there with with Jay and Grant today um look forward to I know I think Jay’s um off the rest of the week he’ll be back out next week but I know Grant and um some of the other family will be around this week so looking forward to spending time with them just a quick followup is just what um how important would it be do you think for the tournament for Rocket to get a better place in the schedule whether that I mean I don’t know if it could be signature event but just a better place where it’s not wedged between signature events and major so that they can get more top tier players to come into the tournament uh well I mean it’s tough i mean it’ll be interesting to see how things shake out and you know do do signature events you know if you’re looking longterm do just all events become big events and guys just play you know a pretty similar schedule and not take many weeks off um you know it’s it’s hard to you can look at the the tour in so many different ways i I feel like there needs to be you know less events less cards the tour gets elevated the the product is a little bit more there’s more continuity um from what you would say like a a top event to a lower level or an opposite field event um you know sometimes it’s tough you have to remove yourself from your current situation but I don’t think that the PJ tour should necessarily have secondary or opposite field events and I think that the PJ tour product is is the PGA Tour product um so there’s a lot you could you could go into um but to a PJ tour event should should be a PJ tour event um and it shouldn’t be uh necessarily well this one’s elevated or this is an opposite field and you know then it goes into you know you’re talking about scheduling and where you’re at based on you know if it’s elevated or not or majors i mean the majors and the players are the are the core events or the big events that are on the schedule and and golf fans to non-golf fans those are the ones that you know they know about those they know what those are um how we elevate PGA tour events outside of that um and so then it may not be become a thing where are you sandwiched or not um and maybe not as big of a scheduling um you know difficulty if there’s all those different kinds of events yes sir hey Ricky thanks welcome back um you know you played about as much golf on this course as uh as any of these guys out here this week uh just wondering if you have any thoughts on the uh the restoration plan starting next week with uh a lot of tree removal uh removing the filling in the pond on 14 just any thoughts on you know how the course will play uh after that after that uh I haven’t seen um I guess the the plans necessarily i’ve just heard some of the basics um you know I know a lot of it is is on you know drainage irrigation regrassing being able to be in a position where they can you know grow some proper rough um so I can’t necessarily comment on you know design aspect i’m looking forward to to seeing some stuff and learning a little bit more on that um so yeah that’s about what I can give right now um you know hoping to maybe be able to give some input um and and you know maybe some more players can see or hear about you know a little bit more in detail on what the plans are um and if if we can help or you know where that all stands but um this place has been here for a while it’s pretty old um I do think it’s you know it’s it’s time for a little revamp uh especially when you you talk about the the irrigation and the drainage and and you know grass and having a kind of a fresh start um but we also want to make want to make sure you know golf course wise and um architecturally and playability everything matches as well all right anything further for Ricky oh one over here i got a little piggyback question off of that as well because this restoration is bringing back a lot of the features that Donald Ross originally put into this course to naturally mitigate water coolage and things like that um have you played any other courses that have done a restoration like this where it’s using older technologies or original designs for a more natural effect than rebuilding trying to rebuild the wheel so to speak yeah I think there’s some places if if you if there’s some places you may not know like a restoration was done and why it was done certain purposes on unless you you know spoke to the people who were doing the redesign and why they did certain things um I think there’s there’s definitely a way that you can use some old school and new school combined to to kind of get the best of both worlds um you know there’s so many great options for for drainage um nowadays that you can use some old school techniques as well um and I think they can work hand in hand all right Ricky appreciate your time good luck this week thank you