Why Rickie Fowler’s Driver-Face Tweaks Are Completely Legal

Rickie Fowler has not enjoyed the most ideal of starts to the 2024 PGA Tour season following a T56 finish at The Sentry before missing the cut at the recent American Express - won by amateur Nick Dunlap.

Part of the reason for that is down to his driving, which - according to a variety of driving stats provided by the PGA Tour - has been among the poorest of everyone who has teed it up in the first two tournaments. 

At this early juncture, Fowler ranks 165th in driving distance, 95th in driving accuracy, and 154th in strokes gained off the tee. Compared to the 2022-23 campaign, Fowler was 39th in driving distance, 113th in driving accuracy, and 77th in SG: Off The Tee. 

So, in a bid to help with his driving issues and return to the kind of form everyone knows he is capable of, the 35-year-old has taken an unusual step.

First shown by Ryan Barath on Instagram, Fowler's Cobra Golf Darkspeed LS driver was spotted during the American Express with three white vertical lines drawn down the face. The purpose of the markings, according to Barath, was to help Fowler with alignment at address.

And as the lines were only drawn on with a white permanent marker and not made up of a foreign substance that would "unduly affect the performance of a ball; the flight, the spin, all the performance of the ball," Fowler was fine to use his club as it remained conforming to USGA Rules.

Hideki Matsuyama fell foul of Rule 4a(3) at the 2022 Memorial Tournament and was disqualified, though, after an official was made aware of markings on the Japanese player's three-wood that breached PGA Tour regulations.

PGA Tour Senior Tournament Director, Steve Rintoul, said images of the club were posted online and his team only learned of them after Matsuyama had used the wood on the first tee. If the former Masters champion didn't use the club, he could have kept playing.

After the 2022 disqualification, Rintoul said: "There is a substance that has been applied to the face by a gentleman that works on Hideki's clubs. Rule 4a(3) within the equipment rules speaks to applying a substance to the face could unduly affect the performance of a ball; the flight, the spin, all the performance of the ball.

"Those markings were placed there by his club guy to help with alignment. Assistance with alignment by placing a small Sharpie mark on the face or small Sharpie line on the face is certainly allowed.

"But what was done there with that substance which is very much like a whiteout substance we would use at home, was a coating that was not only in the grooves but was very thick along the face, and now he's applied a substance to the face, which renders the club non-conforming. Under 4.1a under the rules of golf, a player is disqualified if he uses a non-conforming club."

Matsuyama's fellow competitors certainly took notice of the ruling, as around six months later at the Tournament of Champions (now known as The Sentry), Xander Schauffele was seen with white permanent-marker lines drawn horizontally along the face of his new Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver at regular intervals. 

Schauffele wanted to give the look of grooves on the club face, something he was unable to see originally as a result of the driver's subtle aesthetic. According to GolfWRX, Schauffele's caddie said: "Xander likes to see the face so he added sharpie lines (it’s not paint!)" 

And as previously mentioned, because marker lines do not affect the ball when making a stroke, they are legal. Paint, however, could and is therefore a banned substance.