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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

September 6, 2015

Rickie Fowler

Norton, Massachusetts

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Rickie Fowler into the interview room after 4 under par, 67, he's currently one shot behind Henrik Stenson. If we can get some comments on your round today.

RICKIE FOWLER: Definitely happy with the position I'm in with the way things turned out today. It wasn't a great driving day, I wanted to go out and hit a lot of fairways, but that wasn't exactly accomplished. I'll go work on the range and get that squared away. I just wasn't hitting the center of the face, so that made it a bit tough. Other than that I'm making good swings, actually hitting the center of the face on other ones. Continue to do that, continue to make putts. And mentally it's been a great week for me, just the process and everything and all the shots and committing and moving forward. So I'm looking forward to being in the final group tomorrow with Henrik and we'll have some fun.

Q. Right from the first hole obviously you did have trouble with your driver. Talk about the scrambling you had to do today and if there was one up and down that kind of stuck out in your mind?
RICKIE FOWLER: I hit 5-wood on 1. So that one normally doesn't go over there. But a little funky swing there, but other than that made some good swings. Probably the best up and down was at the last, just a squirrelly lie up at the lip of the bunker on 18. And made a good putt to save par there. Probably meant the most being on the last hole and carrying a little bit of momentum into tomorrow.

Q. You haven't had a lot of success at this golf course. What do you think of the course and what's been the difference this year to you?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, about time I knocked on the door. Yeah, I just for some reason I haven't played that well here. I've had some good rounds, I haven't pieced together a good tournament here. I've had some mediocre finishes. But bound to play good at some point. It seems to be happening this week. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and see if we can sneak out our best finish here so far.

Q. What are you doing differently?
RICKIE FOWLER: Nothing differently. Not swinging any better than I have here before. Making some more putts, possibly. But it's not that I don't like the course or anything like that. I enjoy the layout. The course is in great shape. I've played some good rounds here before, I haven't been able to piece together four rounds to finish well. So we'll see if we can change that tomorrow.

Q. Was there extra actual motivation for the playoffs and the FedExCup, particularly with the success that Jordan and Rory and Jason have had, guys that are contemporaries of you?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I mean, yeah, the majors didn't go as I wanted this year. But my main goals going in were to win and were able to take care of that. And outside of that with those guys playing well and winning, Jason probably playing the playing best as of late and Jordan had his run through the first part of the year, yeah, it's definitely been motivation to go out and get to the same level or be on the same level as those guys.

When they're out there playing their best, you want to go both them when they're playing their best. You've got to step up and make sure I'm taking care of my business, whether it's practice, prep or whatever I'm doing. And to go there and compete against the best players in the world. Those three have kind of distanced themselves a bit. They're playing some great golf. But those are the guys that I want to go head-to-head against and come out on top, if I end up playing better than they do.

Q. Missed the fairways, but when you did, the rough can be tricky sometimes. Were you fortunate to catch some clean lies in the rough or were there spots out there where you really needed to hit a good iron shot to advance it and get on the green?
RICKIE FOWLER: You still had to have a lot of control out of the rough or judge the lie as well as possible. The rough, it's not too thick by any means, but you have to judge how far the ball is going to jump and fly. With the greens firming up, it's not easy to hold the greens and keep the ball on. I feel like I'm a pretty good rough player. I got plenty of practice today, so hopefully I don't have to use that tomorrow. I think it's more being aware of how the ball was going to come out and where you could hit and couldn't hit it to leave yourself a good spot. Like you said, you can end up in a bad spot around these greens and easily make bogey and double quickly.

Q. Based on Brian's question, have you heard this Big Three talk? And what about the notion of a Big Three, when you've had such a good last couple of years?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I want to sneak in and be the fourth. And there's a few other guys you can probably add to it. The three of them have distanced themselves a bit. But there's a lot of good players right now. I had a week, a tournament, I think it was at Akron, I finished tied for 10th, I moved back two spots in the World Ranking. It's tough. You've got to be on top of your game. There's a lot of guys playing well.

Yeah, those three guys have probably played the best out of everyone in the past year or two. But no guarantee that one of the three are going to win every week. There's a lot of guys that are here and ready to play.

Q. How much have you played with Henrik and what do you think of his game?
RICKIE FOWLER: I've played with him a handful of times. I haven't been paired with him consistently or anything like that. We've played a bit. We're good buddies. We're going to enjoy being in the final group together, we'll have a good time.

He's a strong, powerful player. He's a very good iron player. And obviously he's playing well this week to be in the position he's in. I'm looking forward to the two of us playing well, go head-to-head and seeing if one of us will be the one to come out on top.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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