Even the best athletes have seasons where they fail to meet expectations. But unlike most sports, golf's individuality means a season of poor performance often doesn't go unnoticed. Golfers don't have the luxury of hiding behind a team or being subbed off.
In recent years, we've seen plenty of TOUR players bounce back after difficult seasons and return to prime or near-prime form, including Tiger Woods' 2019 comeback and Jordan Spieth's own return to the winner's circle after a difficult few years.
Here are four TOUR players who fell short in 2021-22 and could use a win or two this season.
Gary Woodland
It was only three years ago that Woodland rose above a star-studded U.S. Open field to claim the title over Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, and Jon Rahm.
But Woodland's struggled to make something happen on TOUR since. In 2020-21, the American failed to make it to the second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade and again failed to advance last season.
In 2018-19, when he won the U.S. Open, he only missed three cuts. But last season, the 38-year-old missed four times as many. Overall, Woodland's past season was a large improvement from the year before when he finished the FedEx Cup ranked 113th. But the former U.S. Open champion has yet to regain his top form.
Collin Morikawa
Morikawa by no means had a bad season in 2022, but it certainly wasn't his best. In fact, from a winning standpoint, it was his worst: The 25-year-old went winless on TOUR for the first time since turning pro.
By the end of the 2020-21 TOUR season, Morikawa ranked No. 3 in the world behind Rahm and Dustin Johnson. But by the conclusion of the following season, the American dropped down to No. 8 and has since dropped further to No. 9.
While his approach and iron play last season was still solid as ever, what really set Morikawa back was struggles in tight and around the green. Previously, he's finished 93rd (2019-20) and 86th (2020-21) in strokes gained: around the green on TOUR, but he dropped all the way to 152nd last season.
Morikawa also finished the season ranked 135th in sand save percentage. If he wants to avoid another winless season, the former Open Champion will need a better campaign around the green.
Cameron Champ
Like Morikawa, Champ logged his first winless season since joining the TOUR. Unlike Morikawa, however, Champ struggled all season, failed to find a top-five finish, and only had two inside the top 10.
For the first time since earning his TOUR card, the 27-year-old missed more cuts than he made, only making eight in 19 events in 2021-22. He still finished top of the league in driving distance with a 321.4-yard average, but it's everywhere else that Champ seemingly fell short, failing to break the top 100 on TOUR in any of the strokes gained categories other than off the tee.
At the end of the 2020-21 TOUR season, Champ was No. 69 in the world, but by the end of last season, he'd fallen all the way to No. 128. To avoid another winless season, Champ will need to clean up his game outside of the tee box.
Rickie Fowler
Fowler has been failing to meet expectations for so long now that it's fair to question whether those expectations were ever within reach for the 33-year-old.
After missing out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career in 2020-21, Fowler barely qualified for it this year - only making it after suspended LIV Golf players were removed from the list.
Fowler, with five career TOUR wins, hasn't been victorious since early 2019 and was only able to log one top-10 finish in 22 events last season. His biggest weakness of late has been his putting, which has been on a steady decline since after the 2018-19 season. That year, he finished the TOUR ranked No. 13 in strokes gained: putting. Last season, he'd dropped all the way to No. 161. He's also dropped down to No. 160 in the world rankings. If Fowler wants to regain his TOUR card without stress again, he needs to start finding the bottom of the cup once he reaches the green.
