Rickie Fowler is off to a strong start this season after disappointing campaigns in 2024 and 2025. The fan-favorite golfer already has four top-20 finishes this year and ranks 15th on the PGA Tour in scoring average, but he needs to come up with some last-minute magic if he wants to qualify for the 2026 Masters.
Fowler, who has teed it up at the Masters just once since 2020, is in grave danger of missing out on the best week of golf yet again. He’ll need a strong finish at this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open or a win at next week’s Valero Texas Open to punch his ticket to Augusta National Golf Club.
It’s officially do-or-die time for Fowler.
Rickie Fowler Is in Danger of Missing the Masters Again
GettyRickie Fowler needs a last-minute miracle to qualify for the 2026 Masters.
Fowler used to be a top contender at the Masters every year. From 2014-2019, he recorded five top-12 finishes at Augusta National, including a solo runner-up when Patrick Reed won the green jacket in 2018.
Those days are long gone.
Fowler, who turned 37 in December, has played in only one of the last five Masters tournaments, finishing in a tie for 30th in 2024. His play has fallen off since his last win at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic, as he failed to qualify for the Tour Championship in each of the past two seasons.
Unfortunately for Fowler, Masters invites are directly correlated to recent play. There are 26 distinct qualifying criteria for the famed tournament, which is the most exclusive major championship with only about 100 players cracking the field every year. As of this writing, Fowler doesn’t satisfy any of those criteria.
Fowler still has two weeks left to punch a last-minute ticket to the Masters, but he’ll need to play his best golf in years to even have a chance.
How Fowler Can Qualify for the 2026 Masters
Fowler still has a chance to tee it up at Augusta National in a few weeks, albeit a slim one.
The most attainable path for Fowler would be to crack the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open. The five-time PGA Tour winner currently ranks 61st in the OWGR, but a top-five finish at Memorial Park Golf Course could be enough to vault him inside the top 50. If Fowler can’t score a top-five this week, he’ll need to win the Valero Texas Open next week to score an invite to the Masters.
It would be a shame if Fowler gets left out for the fifth time in six years because he’s playing like a top-30 player in the world right now. He kicked off the season with three straight top-20 finishes and recorded a T9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. He also ranks 26th on Tour this year in total strokes gained, ninth in strokes gained from putting, 18th in total driving and 33rd in greens in regulation percentage.
We haven’t seen this level of consistency throughout the golf bag from Fowler in years, but it might be too little, too late for the beloved pro. Barring a last-minute miracle, the Masters will be missing a touch of orange once again.
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