Rickie Fowler will have a new title by his name when he tees it up at The Travelers this week — expectant father.
Rickie and wife Allison let the cat out of the bag this week with a cute Instagram post — “Reservations for November: Fowler, party of three.”
Rickie also disclosed it’s a girl with the hashtag “GirlDad.”
After missing last week’s U.S. Open championship, Fowler is just one of the big names in this week’s Travelers where Dustin Johnson is the defending champion. D.J. was knocked out of the No. 1 world ranking on Monday of this week by Jon Rahm, winner of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines this past Sunday.
There plenty other big names joining Rickie and D.J. at TPC River Highlands.
Bryson Dechambeau, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Reed and Patrick Cantlay are in the field along with two-time champion Bubba Watson and Mackenzie Hughes, who entered last week’s final round tied for the 54-hole lead with Louie Oosthuizen and Russell Henley.
Olympic Golf Standings Finalized:
Last week’s U.S. Open marked the final week for the Summer Olympics next month in Japan.
Only problem is a lot of name players are going to pass on the competition.
Dustin Johnson already said he’s not going and the U.S. team will have four players who didn’t play in the last Olympic golf competition.
Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau will represent the U.S. Countries are allowed four players if all are ranked inside the top 15 in the Official WOrld Golf Rankings. .
Of course Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama will represent Japan along with Rikuya Hoshino, who tied with Hideki for 26th at last week’s U.S. Open.
U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm has indicated he will represent Spain and it may be Adri Arnaus joining him as Rafa Cabrera Bello and Sergio Garcia have indicated they won’t make the trip to Japan.
Great Britain’s team will be Tommy Fleetwood and possibly Paul Casey as Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Lee Westwood have all declined the trip.
Here’s a list of some of the better known teams and players:
United States: Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele.
Spain: Jon Rahm, Rafa Cabrera Bello or Adri Arnaus.
Great Britain: Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood.
South Africa: Garrick Higgo, Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
South Korea: Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim.
Australia: Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman.
Japan: Hideki Matsuyama, Rikuya Hoshino.
Reshuffle in World Rankings, Rahm Jumps To No. 1:
It was about time and with Dustin Johnson’s mid-season slump, if you want to call it that, Jon Rahm, with his U.S. Open win, has jumped back to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings this week.
Johnson moved back to No. 2 followed by Justin Thomas at No. 3, Collin Morikawa at No. 4 and Xander Schauffele at No. 5. Sixth is Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay has risen to seventh, Brooks Koepka is No. 8, followed by Patrick Reed at nine and Rory McIlroy is No. 10. Tyrrell Hatton moved out of the top 10 to No. 11 while Louie Oosthuizen with his runner-up finish at the U.S. Open moved up to No. 12.
6 Comments
baxter cepeda
Big question with Rickie is will it fire him up to play better or to make even more commercials?
—
Considering another bunch of reasons not to attend, arguably even more reasons than the Zika fear and what’s golf? In Rio, The Tokyo Olympics will have a nice men’s golf field.
I would say a few more big names passed (and some aren’t exactly big). Probably most disappointed Sergio passed. A few of the alternates are more exciting than the players whom passed; such as England. I’ll take Tommy and Paul Casey. I like what the Aussies will have. The Americans are solid.
It’s nice the number 1 player in the world Mr Rham will be there. And Rory will be there. All good things.
Tom Edrington
One of the complaints from players is that they are isolated and are unable to attend any events in other sports and no family or friends can attend….
baxter cepeda
Those are major reasons not to attend but still despite that and how spoiled some golfers are there is still a nice list of 60 golfers more than willing. And why wouldn’t they want to be Olympians and possibly medalists.
I for one watch golf everyday but cannot remember anything from 5 years ago but I know exactly who the men and women who won the 6 golf medals in Rio.
And I remember all the snobs who didn’t show up. Some are redeeming themselves and others showing once again what spoiled brats they can be…too important to represent their Country 4 days every 4 years. Those boys give golf such a bad name. It’s a serious shame. Imo.
juande
I have another team for you, and try to remember this post: Chile, with Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira!
Juan de Dios
Tom Edrington
So very familiar with Joaquin, he was supposed to come to school here in Tampa at the University of South Florida as a member of the golf team; As things worked out, it was good that he turned pro instead; Joaquin has a LOT of game….but if I’m not mistaken, there’s no team competition, only individual medals but I’ll keep an eye on both of the, Juan…thanks for checking in and giving props to Team Chile!
baxter cepeda
No team but their still a team.
Will be interesting to learn more about Mito and other lesser know Olympic golfers. For a while those no names golfers in the Olympics will be bigger stars than DJ and other big names of golf.