Rickie Fowler returns to the PGA Tour this week as he takes on the Rocket Classic in Detroit, Michigan.
Fowler has looked ahead to The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, with the final major championship of 2025 taking place next month.
But his immediate focus is on the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club, which is a tournament Fowler has never missed.
Moreover, the Rocket Classic represents the last victory for the American on the PGA Tour, and the sixth of his career.
He lifted the trophy in 2023, defeating compatriot Collin Morikawa and Canadian Adam Hadwin in a playoff.
Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty ImagesRickie Fowler wants two big changes made to the PGA Tour
And Fowler has now shared his verdict on the event, having been asked in his pre-tournament press conference how important it would be for the Rocket Classic to have a better place in the schedule.
When it was suggested that more top-tier players could potentially play if it didn’t arrive between Signature Events and majors, Fowler replied: “It’s tough.
“It will be interesting to see how things shake out and, you know, do Signature Events… you know, if you’re looking long term, do just all events become big events and guys just play a pretty similar schedule and not take many weeks off?
READ MORE: Rickie Fowler has just done the PGA Tour and Signature Events no favours whatsoever
“You know, it’s hard to… you can look at the Tour in so many different ways. I feel like there needs to be fewer events, fewer cards, the Tour gets elevated, the product is a little bit more… there’s more continuity from what you would say a top event to a lower level or an opposite field event.
“You know, sometimes it’s tough, you have to remove yourself from your current situation, but I don’t think the PGA Tour should necessarily have secondary or opposite field events.
“I think the PGA Tour product is the PGA Tour product. So there’s a lot you could go into, but to me a PGA Tour event should be a PGA Tour event and it shouldn’t be necessarily, well, this one’s elevated or this is an opposite field.
Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
“And then it goes into you’re talking about scheduling and where you’re at based on if it’s elevated or not or majors.
“The majors and The Players are the core events or the big events that are on the schedule, and golf fans to non-golf fans, those are the ones that they know about those, they know what those are.
“How we elevate PGA Tour events outside of that, and so then it may not become a thing where are you sandwiched or not, and maybe not as big of a scheduling difficulty if there’s all those different kinds of events.”
What PGA Tour events has Rickie Fowler won ahead of the Rocket Classic?
Fowler’s discussion of the schedule comes right after the conclusion of the Travelers Championship, which was won by Keegan Bradley.
In terms of the calendar, it remarkably represented the eighth and final Signature Event of the 2025 season.
READ MORE: Rickie Fowler reacts to qualifying for The Open Championship after his top-10 finish at the Memorial Tournament
The Travelers Championship, in turn, arrived immediately after the US Open, while The Open is rapidly approaching.
Whether or not the PGA Tour listens to Fowler about fewer cards and fewer events remains to be seen, but he clearly wants a big change sooner rather than later.
YearWinsTournaments20231Rocket Mortgage Classic20191Waste Management Phoenix Open20171The Honda Classic20152Deutsche Bank Championship
THE PLAYERS Championship20121Wells Fargo ChampionshipRickie Fowler PGA Tour wins
The 36-year-old American has endured a roller-coaster PGA Tour season thus far, with 12 of 14 cuts made in 2025.
He’s clinched just one top-10 finish and looks some way off ending his PGA Tour win drought, but will gain confidence for this week from his 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic title.
