‘Fab Four’ hope is fuel for Fowler
Win lifts American closer to elite
THE best thing that ever happened to Rickie Fowler was being called overrated by his fellow pros. Either that, or the media deciding Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day were the new ‘Big Three’.
The popular American has quietly used those verdicts as fuel to compile a fine body of work over the past eight months, one that has seen him rise stealthily to become the world No 4 following his impressive one-stroke triumph in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship yesterday.
Naturally, it only increased the satisfaction that world No 3 McIlroy was trailing behind him in joint third place and No 1 Spieth in fifth spot.
‘That’s what it’s all about, winning titles and doing so by beating the best in the game,’ said the 27-year-old Californian.
For McIlroy, this tournament has become one long might-have-been, following his fifth top-three finish in the last six years.
He eagled his final hole, which looked good enough for a second-place finish that would have seen him overtake Day in the world rankings. As it was, that small consolation was denied him when Belgian big hitter Thomas Peters birdied the last to snatch the runner-up position.
Not that McIlroy (right) was too downhearted. ‘It just seems to be the tournament I can’t quite master,’ he reflected. But his game is clearly in good shape, given he’s got six more tournaments to play before he heads to Augusta for the Masters.
Next up is the Dubai Desert Classic in 10 days — a tournament he has won twice already.
It was last May that Sports Illustrated published an anonymous poll conducted among the pros, asking among other things for whom they considered the most overrated player. It was fairly jawdropping that Fowler and Ian Poulter finished joint top.
That very week, Fowler went out and won the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, getting into a play-off by finishing the last four holes in a staggering five under par. He won the Scottish Open in July and then, shortly after the ‘Big Three’ term came into being, won again on the PGA tour in Boston. He’s far too decent a man to talk about trying to prove his doubters wrong but he admitted one of his goals was to get people to talk instead about a ‘Fab Four’.
‘Of course I want to join the crew,’ he said. ‘Right now, I’m a sneaky fourth, but I need a major to join the other three.’ So much for golf being an old man’s game. The theme of last year was the rise of the young generation and so it continues, with the top four now all under the age of 28.
Arguably the three outstanding golfers on the European Tour over the past year have been 21-year-old Matt Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan, aged 29, and the hugely gifted Pieters, just 23.
He applied plenty of pressure but, as proven winners do, Fowler kept him at bay by producing a touch of magic when needed.
At the par-five eighth, after a double bogey at the seventh had rudely interrupted his progress, he holed a spectacular bunker shot for an eagle. Then, at the 17th, with the lead back down to a stroke, he chipped in from just off the green for what would prove the decisive birdie.
‘It’s all about hard work and having that belief that you can beat the best,’ said Fowler.
‘Over the last year, I have got better in that regard, and now the big target for me has to be to win a major.’
He’s certainly got the all-round game. He showed that in 2014, when he achieved the rare feat of finishing in the top five in all four majors. If he had the belief then that he’s acquired now, he would definitely have won at least one.
As for Spieth, he showed his brilliance in a week when he was far from his best by grinding out a 68 for a top-five finish.
‘It won’t be something I’ll do in the future, to bounce back and forth from Asia or Australia as much as we did,’ said Spieth, who since the Presidents Cup in South Korea in October has competed in Shanghai, Australia, the Bahamas and Abu Dhabi.
‘I’m very tired. As a team, we’re beat up, both mentally and physically. I’m not 100 per cent right now.
‘I didn’t get in a rhythm and when I did have chances, they just wouldn’t go. But we kept our head in it there on the back nine: four under on the last seven holes to carry some momentum going forward off a week that I could have just bagged it in.’
We’re still in January, therefore, and already the top four are flexing their muscles. What a year it is going to be.