Rickie Fowler splits with longtime caddie: ‘Like a big brother to me’

It’s been over three years since Rickie Fowler won on the PGA Tour and the long drought appears to be causing the 33-year-old golfer to make some changes. 

Fowler is no longer working with longtime caddie Joe Skovron, the Golf Channel first reported. 

The two have worked together since 2009 and Skovron has been on Fowler’s bag for each of his five career PGA Tour victories. Fowler left open the possibility of the two working together in the future. 

“It happened Friday night when we finished up in Greensboro,” Fowler told Lewis this week. “Told Joe I wasn’t really gonna go into details on who brought up the decision or who made the decision or anything like that. We’ve always been a team, we always will be a team, he’s like a big brother to me. Friendship and all that comes first.

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“No hard feelings or anything like that, I just thought it might be the best option for the current time, but by no means does this mean we’re not gonna rekindle the flame in the future or anything like that, but I know it’s been tough on both of us.” 

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It’s been a struggle for Fowler over the past few years, dropping to 167th in the world after being ranked as high as fourth in 2016. He qualified for just one of golf’s four majors in 2022, finishing tied 23rd at the PGA Championship in May. 

“Sometimes a little tweak here or there is a good thing, and that’s ultimately what we kind of came up with,” Fowler said. “This could be good thing.”

Fowler does not have any plans for a permanent caddie replacement, with Cobra’s Tour operations manager Ben Schomin handling his bag this week.