Three missed cuts in four weeks, and then Rickie Fowler shot a 66, under 3, at Royal Birkdale. The American’s Sunday surge didn’t put him in contention for the Claret Jug, but it did mark another step in his comeback from a difficult, injury-hit 2025. He closed with his best round of the week among the players near him on the leaderboard. At the time of publishing, the score has pushed him 40 spots up the leaderboard from the start of the day. He has finished seven shots off the lead. Here’s how the round actually came together and why it means more than just one good Sunday.

Fowler opened with a birdie at the first, added another at the par-3 seventh, and turned 2-under on the front nine. On the back nine, he kept momentum rolling with three more birdies before a bogey at the demanding 18th, one he called “a great bogey” given how tough the hole played all week. He made five birdies throughout 17 holes without dropping a shot. His approach play backed it up. Fowler gained 5.51 strokes on the field with his iron in the final round alone, good for 21st in the field for the day.

The score on Sunday pushed him to share T19 on the leaderboard after starting his day well outside the top 30.

🤔 golf trivia

This Should Be an Easy One, Right?

01/10

Under Which Golf Rule Was Bryson DeChambeau Penalized for Improving His Lie?

Rule 8.1 Rule 4.1b Rule 16.1 Rule 14.7b

Oops, bogey!

But don’t worry, there’s still the back 9 to prove your high golf IQ

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Speaking to the media afterward, Rickie Fowler kept his reaction to his performance simple.

“It always makes the week nicer to finish with a good round and at least salvage a decent finish,” he said.

He also credited his ball-striking, saying he felt it was good enough to have him playing later in the day, even though his irons were a touch off through the week and his short game was below his own standards.

This result comes after a rough stretch. Fowler had missed three consecutive cuts at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the Memorial, and the U.S. Open before arriving at Royal Birkdale. For a player still rebuilding confidence, a top-20 in a major represents progress.

As previously reported, 2025 was a tough year, given Fowler battled a left shoulder injury that dated back to his high school days. It flared up early last year, forcing him to play through pain and medication before shutting down his season in September for PRP injections and rest. He made 18 cuts in 21 starts but managed only three top 10s all year.

“I just never—it just never went away, and it kept getting worse,” Fowler later explained.

The 34-year-old spent the rest of the offseason resting the shoulder instead of grinding through it, and it changed his season.

Still in pain, he came back this year at the Phoenix Open in February. As he prepared to tee up, he shared his only real goal was reaching a point where he didn’t need an Advil just to finish a round.

From there, he has built his form slowly through the spring. He finished T-8 at the RBC Heritage in April, making a very loud comeback. He followed that up with a T-19 at the Cadillac Championship and then the best finish of the year at T-2 at the Truist Championship in May.

His runner-up finish at Truist came a week after he had to fight off a 102-degree fever before turning things around. Fowler caught momentum, but in the latter half of the year, his summer was disturbed with three missed cuts.

But he closed out a 63 at the John Deere Classic, reminding us that his good version of the game has not gone anywhere. The Open finish fits right into the pattern of resurgence.

The preparation it took for Rickie Fowler to come back

Fowler didn’t talk about the injury while he was dealing with it. He only opened up in May at Quail Hollow once he was mostly through the worst of it. He shared that he had been dealing with it since high school, but it flared up earlier that year.

He added, “Sometimes it would flare up for a little bit, maybe a week, go away. It just never went away and kept getting worse,” he said in 2025, speaking to Golf Digest.

Along with resting, Fowler has also worked with Butch Harmon since the 2022 off-season. He is the same coach who helped him rebuild out of the slump years earlier, and they didn’t do anything overall new for 2026.

Once his shoulder settled, they worked on his ball-striking as well. Ahead of the RBC Heritage in April, Rickie Fowler put heavy range hours, hitting 561 balls between Monday and Wednesday, well above his usual routine.

“I felt like it’s a ball-striker’s golf course,” Fowler said at the time. “I obviously sent some videos to Butch. Some of it was just getting in a spot where I was comfortable and getting to continue to move my body.” He called the rest of it a trust thing.

The combination has worked out well for him and has pushed him to revive his 2026. The finish at the Open was another reminder that Fowler’s revival is real, even if the road back has been uneven.