Rickie Fowler living on the bubble again in tour playoffs

ST. LOUIS — Rickie Fowler arrived at Bellerive Country Club this week squarely on the bubble at 30th in the FedEx Cup standings. After three rounds of middling execution and missed opportunities, he now is on the outside looking in for a berth in the Tour Championship.

He can make his life so much easier in 2027 with one good round. And that was his takeaway Saturday after he bogeyed three of his final six holes to settle for an irksome one-under 69 in the third round of the BMW Championship.

“It’s pretty simple: just go play some good golf tomorrow,” the popular Fowler said, taking questions from a couple of reporters despite a disappointing finish.

Ranked 44th in the world, Fowler, 37, is in the bottom half of the leaderboard at one-under 209. He had worked his way back up near his starting spot on the points standings with five birdies in his first 11 holes against one bogey to get to four under par. Four of those came on crisp iron shots that set up birdies of 11 feet or fewer.

Bogeys at 13, 17 and 18 spoiled the day for the five-time tour winner, with the second of those a real killer at the par-5 17th after finding water off the tee.

“It’s not necessarily one thing in particular,” said the California native, who just missed out last year on the playoff finale when he finished 32nd in the points standings after a T-7 effort in this event at Caves Valley. “Not off by much. It's not like we're playing that poorly; just not getting much out of it. I've had a little bit of everything this week from got off to a nice start the first day and came backwards and then had a decent finish yesterday, making eagle 17 and then went the wrong way today.”

Reaching the BMW Championship ensures that Fowler qualifies for all of the signature events for what is the the last year that those elevated tournaments exist before the tour implements its two-tier schedule. But players who advance to the Tour Championship earn exemptions into all the majors next year. Fowler, whose best finish in 2026 is T-2 at the Truist Championship, has played in the Masters just once the last six seasons, in 2024 after getting to East Lake the previous summer. He finished tied for 30th at Augusta National Golf Club. His best Masters finish was runner-up in 2018.

“That’d be nice,” he said of the majors benefit. “If not, then obviously maybe play a little bit in the fall to try and work on world ranking. But like I said, regardless, we're going to be fine. Obviously ,we've put together some good finishes this year. It's not a bad position to be in. So yeah, go put together a nice solid round of golf tomorrow and go to Atlanta. And if not, it's start somewhat of the off season a week sooner.”