Gary Player has nominated Rickie Fowler as the current PGA Tour player most capable of completing the career Grand Slam, with one significant caveat: the Black Knight believes Fowler's swing still needs surgery before the 36-year-old can break his major drought.
Appearing on the Vanity Index Podcast and asked which winless-in-majors star could one day collect all four professional Grand Slam trophies, the South African legend pointed straight at Fowler.
"I think, Rickie, but he also needs to have a swing change," Player said.
That blunt assessment is classic Player, who at 90 remains golf's most outspoken champion of fundamentals. He elaborated that while Fowler has tweaked his action since splitting from longtime coach Butch Harmon and working with Brad Faxon and John Tillery in recent seasons, the swing still falls short of the technical standard the great major winners shared at the top.
"It's getting better, but there's certain things that all the superstars did when they swung the club, which I'm not gonna discuss with you," Player said. He stopped short of naming the specific flaw, but insisted that without a neutral clubface at the top of the backswing, winning major championships remains an enormous ask.
The context matters. Fowler, 37, has not won a major championship and is heading to Aronimink next week as a recently-confirmed entrant in the 2026 PGA Championship after ending a long stretch outside the major spotlight. His last PGA Tour victory came in 2023 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Player's pick is also a notable narrative gamble. Of the players most often discussed as career Grand Slam candidates — Jordan Spieth, who needs only the PGA, and Rory McIlroy, who finally crossed the Masters threshold this year — Fowler has the steepest mountain by far. He still needs all four legs, not just one. But Player has long held a soft spot for Fowler's manners, his pace of play and the way he treats playing partners, and the praise on the swing came framed as constructive tough love rather than dismissal.
The South African has spent two decades campaigning for shorter equipment, longer course setups and a return to shot-shaping over distance. His comments about needing "certain things" superstars share at impact slot neatly into that broader sermon — and into the same week Scottie Scheffler used a TPC Sawgrass press conference to argue that modern golf's distance arms race is making players hit the ball further at the cost of skill.
Whether Fowler bites is another question. He has so far resisted any wholesale rebuild, telling reporters this season that the goal is consistency, not revolution. Player, for his part, sounds unconvinced by half measures. "It's getting better," he said. The implication: not yet better enough.