Ten months ago, Rickie Fowler sat at No. 128 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). Steady performances this season have lifted him to No. 65, offering some much-needed breathing room after a prolonged slump. It’s a positive sign, but is it enough to earn him a Masters invitation?

Unfortunately, no. Not yet. Fowler needed a top-50 OWGR spot for a Masters exemption, which he could have grabbed last week at the Texas Children’s Houston Open with a win or at the very least a top-5 finish. Despite a promising start, he managed neither.

Ranked 61st entering the event, he fired a 3-under 67 in Round 1, four shots behind the leader, Paul Waring. But Friday’s bogeys and doubles derailed him, and he missed the cut. With that, he fell down the world rankings (65). So, the quest to qualify via the top-50 cut line is out of the question, with the exemption having ended after the Houston Open. But he still has a chance, only it’s a lot tougher, but it is near impossible.

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On Which Hole Jordan Spieth’s Ball Got Stuck Under a Trashcan?

14th 15th16th 17th

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This week, he will be in the field to play the Valero Texas Open against pros like Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg, and Collin Morikawa. But this time, Fowler will need to win the event to secure his spot in the Masters, with just one spot remaining in the Augusta field. To put things into perspective, he finished T30 here last season. However, he has also finished inside the top 20 in 3 of the 6 times he has played here.

So, if he doesn’t win the event (likely) and thus doesn’t qualify for the Masters (again, likely), it would likely be back-page news.

Fowler has played the Masters 11 times (managing three top 10s, including a runner-up in 2018), but he has not played at Augusta since 2024. That time, he qualified via his win at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, which also helped end his seven-year winless streak. Indeed, he hasn’t come close to a similar feat following that.

But he is improving. In this season, he played in seven tournaments and made the cut in six, with his best finish being T9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. As for the Masters? There’s a very good chance Fowler will sit this one out as well.

He is hardly the only popular pro to face this. Both Sahith Theegala and Pierceson Coody missed their last chance of getting into the Masters after withdrawing from the Valero Texas Open. On the other hand, Fowler continues battling multiple issues.

Rickie Fowler on his career resurgence

“I think a lot of it is on the mental side, not trying to do too much or anything special,” Rickie Fowler said on Thursday at the Houston Open. “I’m trying to kind of let the rounds come to me, piece things together, and kind of plot my way around.”

There are some positive takeaways from his performance. He started 2026 with three top-20s, but he knows he still needs to be better. Meanwhile, the pro is also battling a health issue.

In February, Fowler made a few changes in his equipment, stating, “I love testing, and it’s not always me searching for stuff for myself. There’s plenty that we do, and we are checking if we have the best options available.

The equipment changes, as stated by Ben Schomin, Cobra Director of Tour Operations, include Cobra OPTM X (driver), Scotty Cameron GoLo Center Shaft proto (putter), among others.