It wasn’t all that long ago when Rickie Fowler reached the lowest point of his career in the Official World Golf Ranking. Last September, he entered the Fortinet Championship ranked 185th in the world, a point he hadn’t reached since early as a professional. He shot a pair of 69s that weekend, tied for sixth place, moved up to 148th in the world and has been on an upward climb since.
Fowler has finally vaulted back into a spot where he resided for a large portion of his pro career. He shot 71-68-68-69 at the Wells Fargo Championship to tie for 14th place at Quail Hollow, where he won his first tour event 11 years ago. According to world-ranking guru Nosferatu, Fowler’s performance was good enough to move him to 50th in the world for the first time since January 2021.
Here are a few world ranking numbers about the five-time PGA Tour winner.
The highest he’s ever been ranked was fourth, in early 2016. In January 2021, Fowler was ranked 41st, but moved to 56th the next week and hasn’t been back inside the top 50 until now. His most recent victory came in 2019 at the WM Phoenix Open.
Fowler’s ascent has been slow but steady this year, but it actually started late last year with a second-place tie at the Zozo Championship where he and Andrew Putnam finished one shot behind Keegan Bradley. That result moved him up to 106th in the world.
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In 2023, Fowler hasn’t yet missed a cut, making all 10 that he’s played on the PGA Tour and has recorded eight top-20 finishes. He tied for 11th place at the Farmers Insurance Open, tied for 10th at the WM Phoenix Open and again at the Valero Texas Open. A week prior to the Texas Open, Fowler barely missed out on qualifying for the round of 16 at the WGC–Dell Match Play, where winning one more match there would’ve moved him from 59th to somewhere much closer to 50th, which would’ve earned him an invitation into the Masters at the time.
A tie for 15th place at the RBC Heritage nudged Fowler closer to 50th and he entered the Wells Fargo Championship ranked 53rd.
