The official 2025 PGA Tour season is over, and golf nerds are getting impatient. Turning towards next year’s early rank predictions seems like the only viable choice. Early stats have rolled in, and many sit comfortably in the top 50. However, one name, Rickie Fowler, finds itself at the crossroads yet again.

For much of the past decade, Fowler has been one of golf’s most marketable faces. But stats by X’s Nosferatu indicate he will neither crack the top 50 in OWGR by this year’s end, nor qualify for the season’s first major event at Augusta. Fowler right now sits at 83. The 2026 edition will be his second consecutive miss.

In November, Rickie Fowler admitted to injuring his shoulder, which had forced him to take an extended break from competition. This hiatus couldn’t have come at a worse time. He couldn’t compete in the PGA Tour’s fall stretch, the only breathing ground for bubble players like him, and now, he is falling deep in the rabbit hole. This is a grim outlook for someone who was once likely to win the Green Jacket.

Between 2014 and 2018, Fowler was among the most consistent performers at Augusta. He finished runner-up four times in five years and was a tough wall to crack. But that was a different era. An era when fancily clothed Fowler would be the favorite on the course. Now, there’s a drought with the last PGA Tour win in 2023 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Surprisingly, there was still hope during the season.

Fowler posted three top-10 finishes from his side, including a T6 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and a T7 at the BMW Championship. But those finishes could never turn into victories. Apart from the Masters, Rickie Fowler didn’t qualify for the US Open either and missed the cut at the PGA Championship. The only good major result was at The Open, where he registered a T14.

Fowler qualified for the Royal Portrush event after winning a tiebreaker against Brandt Snedeker. That was the highest-finishing non-exempt spot via the Open Qualifying Series. Such flashes of brilliance showed a player who was resilient enough to persevere. But then came his injury.  Hence, he sits far out of the top-50 cutoff criteria, which will close on December 31. The secondary cutoff will be on March 30, 2026.

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Can Rickie Fowler still make it to the Masters?

The secondary cutoff date for the master’s is on March 30, 2026. For Rickie Fowler to make a dent, he would have to show several top finishes in the early-season events. But will his lingering shoulder injury allow that? Nevertheless, Fowler is set to make a comeback in January 2026 at The American Express, if his injury permits.

But injury won’t be his only hurdle. His professional landscape has also seen some rust. Last year, his long-standing sponsorship with Grant Thornton ended, and he could not automatically qualify for this fixture event. He also missed an invitation to Tiger Woods‘ Hero World Challenge, which was also a fixture. A large part of his year was reliant on the sponsors’ exemption. Which, in retrospect, could be another way he could scramble in.

In the most far-fetched scenario, Rickie Fowler can earn a special invitation to Augusta National. That’s a privilege rarely granted to established professionals, so it’s highly unlikely. But the American has long been loved by his audiences and can generate good viewership for the event. His 2025 anyway saw him contesting due to such exemptions. A total of seven such exemptions, but they were also enough to cause significant murmurs in the golf community. That’s why a special invitation by a major event to Fowler is highly unlikely, but holds a little possibility.

“This is a place you don’t want to miss. Sitting on the couch is one of the few events that you would watch as a fan and professional golfer, but it’s a lot better when you’re a part of it and actually playing,” said Rickie Fowler about the Masters once. He’ll be hoping he isn’t spending another Masters week on that couch again.