Ponte Vedre, Florida …
Fellow former Players Championship winner Rickie Fowler will be looking for more than just being an interested spectator when he joins Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for the opening two rounds of the Players Championship.
Long-time arch rivals Woods and Mickelson will tee-up alongside each other on TPC Sawgrass for a first occasion since 2001.
And while Fowler, who captured the 2015 Players with a birdie at the first play-off hole, is friendly with both Woods and Mickelson, it is sure to be a ‘new’ experience for the 29-year old who is 13-years younger than Woods and 16-years younger than Mickelson.
“As a golf fan, maybe not knowing how much time they have spent together in the past few years with kind of the Ryder Cup stuff, I think — Tiger and Phil are a bit closer than people knew beforehand,” said Fowler.
“They’re starting to see a little bit of that coming out, them playing a practice round at Augusta, and with the Ryder Cup stuff, and the two of them being very involved.
“It’s also been fun for me to see kind of behind the scenes that kind of friendship kind of come out a little bit more. Obviously very big rivals. They go head-to-head through kind of the — obviously I’d say the prime of their career. They may not be in their prime, but they’re still very relevant.
“It’s something that’ll be fun to watch because they’re friends, they definitely like seeing each other succeed and play well, but when it comes to tournament week, especially if they’re playing together, they want to beat up on each other as bad as possible, and I’ll be part of that group, as well.
“So, to be out in front of those two after Friday would be nice. But ultimately we want that after Sunday. Like I was talking about earlier, kind of get the three of us going, get some good mojo going and good momentum in the group and kind of feeding off each other would be great, but ultimately you want to beat up on all the guys in your group and everyone in the field.
“It’ll be extra motivation, I’m sure. Tiger is going to want to beat up on myself and Phil, and Phil the same way. So we’ll have fun out there doing it, though.”
