Young gun Mcilroy embraces rivalry

Barely a month after the year’s opening major was billed as a two-horse race between Rory Mcilroy and Tiger Woods, there is now the prospect of a very different rivalry at the top of international golf.

Rickie Fowler captured his first PGA Tour victory with a win at the Wells Fargo Championship on Monday (NZ time) at Quail Hollow, where he beat Mcilroy – who reclaimed the world No 1 ranking this week – and DA Points in a playoff to finally confirm his status as the bright young hope of American golf.

Fowler and Northern Ireland’s Mcilroy, who compete this week at the Players Championship, are both 23 years old and appeal to a younger demographic that the PGA Tour has been keen to capture to broaden its base of support.

While the decline of Woods, who tied for 40th at last month’s Masters, has allowed for a wide range of winners on the tour in recent years, Mcilroy believes an elite group battling it out regularly against each other would appeal to fans.

‘‘As a fan growing up watching golf, I loved that Tiger was dominant and I loved that there might be Phil Mickelson who would come and challenge him for a while and then Ernie Els and then Vijay Singh and then David Duval,’’ Mcilroy said this week. ‘‘I sort of liked that as a storyline. So it would be nice if a few people separated themselves from the rest . . . for me, if I was a golf fan, I’d like to see a rivalry.’’