Nassau, Bahamas ….
For defending Hero World Challenge champion Rickie Fowler turning 30 will hopefully bring him overdue reward at golf’s highest level.
Fowler heads into this week’s elite 18-player field just over a fortnight shy of his 30th birthday having posted a blistering final round 61 a year ago to win the event being staged again on the Albany course in the Bahamas.
The win was Fowler’s eighth since turning professional in 2009 and also his last taste of success and in season 2018 when he shot a final round 67 to finish runner-up at the Masters.
Rickie Fowler soon to turn 30 .. “I’ve alays heard that 30s were your prime’.
However, with three second-places and five other top-five’s in his 36 Major Championship appearances since a debut in the 2008 U.S. Open the American enjoys high statue as a member of the ‘The Best Golfers Not To Win A Major’ club.
While he’s not about to panic, Fowler would dearly like to change that as a 30-year old heading into the 2019 season.
“I’ve always heard that 30s were your prime, so we’re just getting into it,” he said.
“But then there’s no urgency and I don’t see any kind of rush or anything like that. I look at the next five to 10 years as the time to take advantage of things and make sure that we’re not sitting back and just relaxing, go out and take care of what we want to take care of and see what can happen.
“I would say the 40s is a little bit more of where we’d look at prime would be kind of in the rear-view mirror.
“So, I’m looking forward to, like I said, these next five to 10 years of taking advantage of them and making them count.”
Fowler is returning to competition for a first time since sharing fourth place earlier this month at the Shriners Hospital for Children Open while he shared 16th place at the following week’s Mayakoba Classic in Mexico.
And after being presented with the unique ‘Tiger’ trophy a year ago by tournament host, Tiger Woods who was playing under much future career uncertainty, Fowler believes Woods successful and victorious return to the Tour has presented more a ‘level playing field’.
“The good thing is that I get to see Tiger back home in Florida but then I don’t look at him as, you know, he was probably looked at early 2000s,” said Fowler.
“He’s someone that we want to go beat up on, he wants to beat up on us.
“So, I feel like it’s a lot more of a level playing field now where prior to a lot of us being out here, you look at the kind of late the ’90s, early 2000s when he was 30 percent win percentage and all that, he stepped on the tee and it was a different presence. He still carries that presence.
“He’s still won 14 majors, 80 wins, so it’s got to count for something.
“But no, we’re not scared to go toe to toe and go have some fun out there with him.”
