Rickie Fowler made LIV stance clear as he had no nonsense answer for Greg Norman

Rickie Fowler’s name was one heavily linked with joining the LIV Golf setup throughout 2023, however the American opted to remain with the PGA Tour and will defend his Rocket Mortgage Classic title this week.

Having announced himself as one of golf‘s hottest prospects over a decade ago, Fowler’s form on the PGA Tour had wilted in recent years before bouncing back at Detroit Golf Club last July. After seeing off Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin in a tense playoff, Fowler became a PGA Tour winner for the first time in four-and-a-half years.

Amid his struggle for form in the period leading up to his win, Fowler had been rumoured to be towards the top of the wish list of LIV chief Greg Norman, who had already lured in some of the 35-year-old’s fellow big names, including the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka.

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In the end however Fowler opted to remain with the PGA Tour, before going on to make his return to the winners’ circle. Fowler’s long-awaited win was captured by Netflix’s Full Swing cameras last summer, a behind-the-scenes docu-series covering one of the most turbulent eras in professional golf.

And whilst appearing on the show, Fowler addressed his links to the LIV setup, and outlined exactly why he opted to turn down the Saudi switch. [Joining LIV] wasn’t the best choice for me,” the six-time PGA Tour winner told the Netflix cameras.

“I’m not out there playing for a pay check, I’m out there playing to compete with the best players in the world and I believe the Tour is the best place to be. I’d like to see it continue to be like that.” With his loyalties firmly with the PGA Tour, Fowler is on title-defence duty this week at the 2024 edition Rocket Mortgage Classic.

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Since his victory last July, Fowler has failed to re-find his best form, having failed to get himself back in contention so far this season. There were improvements at last week’s Travelers Championship, after he came away with a top-20 finish, and the 35-year-old is hoping to build on this in Detroit.

“I started to score a little bit better last week, which is obviously kind of the name of the game, putting up good numbers,” he said on Wednesday. “Putted well last week. Yeah, kind of the first week to kind of see some good progress and kind of build some momentum and some confidence going into this week.

Looking back at last year’s win, and hoping for a similar outcome, he commented: “Yeah, obviously it was a nice week and a big relief after the few years leading up to it. Looking forward to being back and picking up where we left off last year. I haven’t played quite that well since then, so yeah, it would be nice to kind of get things going again this week here at Rocket.”