Rickie Fowler Eyes Up Olympic Games After Ryder Cup Nightmare

Rickie Fowler already has his eyes set on his next appearance for the United States after his nightmare experience at the Ryder Cup.

Selected as a wildcard by US captain Zach Johnson, Fowler endured a torrid time in Rome as Europe cruised to a 16.5-11.5 victory at Marco Simone.

The American was the only player who failed to pick up any points over the three days, with the World No. 24 benched for the entirety of Saturday's play.

Now, returning to action for the first time since the tournament at the Zozo Championship in Japan, he reflected on his disappointing week. 

“I don’t think you ever really erase it,” Fowler said. “Like I mentioned, they’re still amazing weeks, just not fun being on the wrong side of it. 

"Win or lose, they’re still some of the best weeks of your career being on those teams with some of the best players in the world, especially from your country, just to be able to be in that situation. 

“They just happen to be a lot more fun when you’re on the winning side. Unfortunately, there have been very few of those for the past 30 years, especially when you talk about overseas."

During the Ryder Cup, Johnson had been coy about an illness in the US camp, with Fowler one of the players reported to have suffered the worst.

“It was unfortunate,” Fowler reflected this week. “Myself and a couple of other guys weren’t feeling very well, so I’m happy to be in a healthy spot and excited to play some better golf than I did in Rome."

Despite his performance at the Ryder Cup, Fowler has still enjoyed a hugely successful year, winning for the first time since 2019 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and catapulting up the world rankings in the process.

But the 34-year-old is still chasing further accolades and revealed his next goal for the upcoming year.

“The Ryder Cup was the ultimate goal, because I needed to check off a few other goals to make that happen,” he added. “But now I have a lot of work to do to make the Olympic team.

“If I were to do that, I would have accomplished a lot of things that I want to and there would be a lot of good golf. I’d love to be able to represent the US again in the Olympics, but we’ll see if we can take care of other things to make that happen.”

Fowler finished T37 at the 2016 Olympics when golf made its return to the Games but did not qualify for the 2020 edition in Tokyo.