Rickie Fowler walked off the 18th green at Castle Pines in August and became a ghost for nearly four months. Fowler skipped the Fall Series and ignored the lucrative “silly season” exhibitions completely this year. So the fans wondered where the PGA Tour’s brightest orange spark was. Finally, that calculated silence broke today with a Tweet from a popular Twitter fan account, ‘Rickie Fowler Tracker.’

Rickie Fowler has committed to 2026 The American Express. It’s actually just 44 days until he is officially back. The event will be held at La Quinta, California (Jan 22-25). Official PGA Tour commitments also confirmed Fowler’s entry alongside players like Sepp Straka and Ben Griffin.

It’s a massive update, and one must remember the noise surrounding his 2025 season to understand this return. Critics roasted Fowler for accepting multiple exemptions into the massive $20 million Signature Events and even labeled these invites “free checks” for Fowler as a guy who was resting on past glory rather than current form.

And in the middle of that, Fowler ended the 2025 season with almost nothing due to his nagging shoulder issues. He posted a mediocre T39 finish at the Genesis Invitational, and also struggled to a T53 at Pebble Beach and failed to make the cut at the PGA Championship. The shoulder issue ruined his usually reliable iron play.

But Fowler flipped the script with his best performance of the season, which came when he fired clutch rounds of 66-69-66-69 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship to finish T6, vaulting him into the Top 50, and securing his 2026 playing privileges in a couple of big events. He carried that momentum into the BMW Championship week, but a hole on the back nine crushed his momentum completely and left him with a T7 finish and two spots behind the cutline to make it to the Tour Championship.

But Fowler successfully silenced the washed-up narrative. And now, with his status secured, Fowler seeks redemption for that near-miss.

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The Desert Stage is set for redemption

Choosing the American Express for the comeback does have a strategy. The event is played across three courses—PGA West Stadium, Nicklaus Tournament, and La Quinta CC—all featuring pure greens and favorable weather. He had past successes at the American Express, including a T10 finish in 2020 and a respectable T21 in 2021, and finished another T21 here, even during his 2025 slump.

The Tour will also witness other notable returns, such as Justin Thomas, Will Zalatoris, and Daniel Berger. The two-time major champion Thomas underwent a second microdiscectomy late in 2025,  and like Fowler, he missed the fall season to recover, will play at the event.  Zalatoris underwent back surgery and has been slowly rebuilding his game. And after battling long-term injury demons, Berger is also slated to tee it up. However, all eyes will focus on the man in the orange shirt.

But don’t expect the Tour to hand him the trophy easily, as the American Express always attracts a hungry field looking to bank early FedExCup points. Straka dominated the 2025 edition and is a specialist on Pete Dye courses will also play the event. The major winner, Wyndham Clark, will also be there alongside Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim to make the competition tougher.