Major victory tops Fowler’s list of goals
The last time we saw Rickie Fowler playing on an island paradise, he started the final round of the Hero World Challenge with seven consecutive birdies, blitzed the field with a course-record 61 and won Tiger Woods’ annual bash in the Bahamas by four shots.
It was a nice way to wrap up his eighth full year as a professional, a career that has included wins in the Bahamas, Scotland, United Arab Emirates, South Korea and four PGA Tour titles in Florida (two), Massachusetts and North Carolina.
However, Fowler, who once was criticized for being more flash than substance, will be the first to tell you his résumé should have more victorious locales listed. There’s especially one destination he’d like to add to the list.
“Goals going forward this year is, I would say, the biggest and main one, is to get a major,” Fowler, who turned 29 last month, told reporters ahead of this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions on the island of Maui in Hawaii. “I think we did a good job last year of putting myself in contention multiple times, but there needs to be some better weekends to make sure that we’re on top come Sunday afternoon. So that’s the main goal this year.”
Fowler looked prime to join the major fraternity in 2015 after he finished in the top five of each of the four major championships in 2014. But in his next eight majors, his best finish was a tie for 12th and he missed three cuts.
While he won three times in 2015, including The Players Championship, and added another victory in 2016, there remained the major hole on the résumé.
Fowler had more in his bag, Butch Harmon knew, and in a stern exchange ahead of 2017, he told him so. In so many words, Harmon said Fowler had to decide if he wanted to be a Kardashian, the king of social media, or a golf pro.
Fowler upped his game in the gym and on the range and produced one of his best seasons — he won the Honda Classic besides the Hero World Challenge and notched 10 top-10 finishes and 16 top-25s in 21 starts. He improved in almost every category, especially with his bunker play and his putting. This year he’d like to improve on his proximity to the hole with his wedges.
He gave himself solid chances in the majors. He shared the 36-hole lead in the Masters and started the last round a shot out of the lead before shooting 76. He took the first-round lead in the U.S. Open but had so-so second and fourth rounds and tied for fifth. A humdrum third round stifled him in the PGA Championship, where he tied for fifth.
“I would have liked to have and should have won more last year,” said Fowler, who is No. 7 in the world. “I was in contention and put myself in a lot of great positions to do so. I would say in a handful of cases there’s guys that just went out and won the golf tournament, and I feel like that was something I did at Tiger’s event. ... So going into some of the weekends at the majors, it’s not necessarily not being defensive or playing offense, but just going out there and playing like you really believe it and you just go get the job done.”
Fowler said his job now is to continue the momentum from last year. In his only official start of the 2017-18 season, he finished second in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico and then won the Hero. Thursday, he eagled the 18th hole at Kapalua Golf Club to finish with a 4under-par 69, good for two strokes behind first-round leader Marc Leishman.
“I think you can definitely carry momentum,” Fowler said. “So coming into the year, playing here and really getting back into the swing of things, if we can build off of how well we were playing and tighten things up and make it better, I think it can be a really good year.”