Rickie Fowler hasn’t had a bad 2026 so far. He has delivered a few good performances and has been relatively consistent on the leaderboard. The 37-year-old may not have had any top-10s, but he has still been relatively close to them. However, he will need to take things up a notch if he wants to qualify for the field at Augusta National this year.

As reported by the Rickie Fowler Tracker, “To reach the Top 50 this week, Rickie will need a Solo 5th finish or better. He needs 17.18402 points across the next three events to reach #50 on this week’s OWGR. There’s a lot of different scenarios but three straight Top 15s should do it. Thanks to @mikeray for putting this together!”

Fowler is playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this week. He might struggle to compete against the strong field and grab a top-5 finish against the strong field. However, he didn’t face any difficulties tackling the same challenges at Pebble Beach and the Riviera.

He grabbed a T19 finish in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and a T28 in the Genesis Invitational. That may not be close to the top-5, but the six-time PGA Tour champion might still be confident to finish well at Bay Hill. Even if it’s just a Top-15 finish.

In fact, as the tweet stated, three consecutive T15s or under will also help him get into the Masters Tournament. Other than the ongoing Arnold Palmer Invitational, Fowler will also be competing in The Players Championship. It will be interesting to see which other tournament he will participate in.

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Last season, he competed in two events between The PLAYERS Championship and the Masters Tournament. Fowler got a T52 in the Texas Children’s Houston Open. He followed that up with a T30 in the Valero Texas Open. But that didn’t earn him a place in the field for the first major of the year. So he had skipped the trip to Augusta National last season.

The difference between last season and this year is that he didn’t get as many finishes in the top-20. Leading up to the Masters Tournament week, he only had a T18 in the Cognizant Classic. However, apart from the Signature events, Fowler has had a couple of more T18s in the American Express and the WM Phoenix Open to kick off 2026 on a high.

So it’s clear that the six-time PGA Tour champion is in much better form this season. But the chances of him making the Augusta National field still rely on his performance. If he maintains the same schedule as he did in 2025, then Fowler will have four opportunities to get three top-15 finishes.

That said, how is Fowler’s run in the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational going so far? Let’s take a look at how he has played the front nine holes as he tries to grab a top-5 finish and secure a spot for the Masters Tournament field early.

Rickie Fowler aims to get things done at the Bay Hill Club itself

Why wait till the week before the Masters Tournament if Rickie Fowler can earn his way into the Masters Tournament at Bay Hill itself? He was snubbed from playing the $20 million Signature event in 2025. This was one of the big events that Fowler didn’t get an exemption in last season.

However, there wasn’t any bad blood between the 37-year-old and Arnold Palmer‘s family as they welcomed him back to the tournament this season. And he welcomed the invitation by giving them a great performance in the first half of Thursday.

Fowler didn’t have an overtly spectacular round. But he also avoided making any mistakes to start his campaign at Bay Hill. A birdie on the par-5 4th hole was enough to keep him under par. He ended the first nine holes flawlessly at 1-under par.

The six-time PGA Tour champion hasn’t won the Arnold Palmer Invitational yet. His best performance was a T3 way back in 2013. That was also the only top-5 finish he has had in the tournament. With a Masters Tournament spot at stake, Rickie Fowler would be eager to change that this time around. Maybe he might even go all the way at Bay Hill and finally end his winless streak. You never know.