Rory McIlroy returned to the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking following his victory Sunday at the CJ Cup, but McIlroy, who climbed from 14th to eighth, wasn’t the only player to make a notable rise.
Rickie Fowler surrendered the 54-hole lead in Las Vegas, but he still managed to notch a T-3 showing, his best finish since a T-2 at the 2019 Honda Classic. As a result, Fowler reentered the top 100, improving 46 spots to No. 82.
Fowler still has work to do to beef up his playing schedule for next year. Of the four majors in 2022, he is currently only qualified for the PGA Championship at Southern Hills by way of his T-8 finish this past May at Kiawah. He also isn’t in The Players, as his exemption from winning in 2015 just ran out.
But as Fowler trends upward in the world rankings, re-cracking the top 50 becomes more of a possibility. If he does so by the end of the year, he’s in next April’s Masters, and he can also earn other major starts, plus The Players, if he gets inside that number by those championships’ respective cutoff dates (the U.S. Open invites the top 60).
However, he will have limited opportunities to do so this year, as he’s only committed to play in this week’s Zozo Championship in Japan. He also did not receive an invite to Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in early December.
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