"Who could have imagined just five years ago that Jordan Spieth and Fowler...would both be ranked outside the top 50 and all but forgotten heading into 2021?"

A variation of that question gets asked pretty frequently of most anyone who calls themselves a golf writer and there are no easy answers. Derek Lawrenson highlights the recent struggles of Rickie Fowler’s efforts to retool his swing in his weekly Daily Mail column and writes:

The Californian has played in 18 consecutive tournaments without so much as a top-10 finish and is now on the brink of falling outside the world’s top 50 for the first time in a decade.

That’s quite some fall for a man who won six times between 2015 and 2017 after finishing in the top five in all four majors in 2014.

It’s another illustration that while golf might be the slowest of games, it has a fast-changing landscape. Who could have imagined just five years ago that Jordan Spieth and Fowler, back then the two golden boys of American golf, would both be ranked outside the top 50 and all but forgotten heading into 2021?

At 27 and 31 respectively, it’s too glib and easy to say they will be back. It’s certainly the hope given they’re two of the game’s nice guys.

The bald truth, however, in a mentally shattering game, is it’s far from a given.

Another factor that can’t be discounted: both Fowler and Spieth have had incredibly lucrative off-course endorsement careers. No matter how much drive both may have, the financial windfalls inevitably have to chip away at their competitive edge. Oh and the balls goes to far and the future will be all about bashing, so I’m not sure the motivation will be there for players who, at their best, thrive on a variety of skills instead of just driving and putting. That should annoy them or the governing bodies, but so far, not yet.