Rickie Fowler fired up to make major breakthrough

Yes, but he hasn’t won a major. It is a sentence that assails Rickie Fowler every year, so we might as well get in early, this being the first showpiece event of the European Tour in 2016.

So what if he is ranked sixth in the world and the Players Champion? He is walking out for at least the first two days in Abu Dhabi in the company of Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, two golfers who between them are resetting the game’s parameters in the post-Tiger Woods era.

Fowler is here courtesy of an invite from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. This would be because he is box office, telegenic and talented. And on the basis of his major record in 2014, where he posted four top-five finishes, chasing McIlroy home at the Open and the US PGA Championship, you might argue only providence stands between him and that defining victory.

His win at Sawgrass last May, lifting golf’s “fifth major”, demonstrated his readiness to deliver in the most testing circumstances. Yet after 2014, there was a sense of anti-climax attached to that. His three professional victories stand not as a testament to his gifts but as a rebuke almost, an argument that Fowler is not all some in the game would have you believe.

If he is to escape from beneath the Spieth/McIlroy domination it is at tournaments like this that he might set out the case for his elevation, something he acknowledges in the American fashion.

“It’s going to be a fun ride this year. A lot of guys are playing well, but you look at some of the top guys in the world, and they are ready to go kind of beat up on each other,” said Fowler, who finished fifth behind Spieth in Hawaii a fortnight ago.

“The past two years have been pivotal in my career. Getting three great Tour wins under my belt and coming so close in the four majors in 2014 has given me confidence. I’m feeling more comfortable with my game than ever, and I’m looking forward to starting with a tough test against some of my biggest rivals and friends in Abu Dhabi, which I hope will set me up nicely for the season ahead.

“I may not be ranked as high as the other two but I am close. A major would help me to become a solid part of the talk but I look forward to going up against these boys and having a good time. We are all good buddies so it is going to be a fun walk over these first two days.

“It would be fun to get the three of us going, to see if we can push each other on. I know I want to see those guys play well because I feel like it brings out the best in me. I feel like I can push and motivate them, as well.”

Henrik Stenson is another who combines a high ranking (fifth in the world) with a majorless CV. Befitting a man of his age, 12 years Fowler’s senior at 39, there is none of the urgency of the younger man to prove himself in this company. If that major comes, great, if not, he goes forth with a bank balance almost as profound as his talent.

Stenson boasts half a dozen top five-finishes in the majors, including a second at the Open in 2013 and four top threes. “I don’t think I have for ever to accomplish what I want to do. It has to happen in the next three or four years, I’m pretty certain of that,” Stenson, grouped with Martin Kaymer and last year’s winner, Gary Stal, said.

“I don’t feel old, but the body certainly starts to feel it. In my mind I’m still probably somewhere between 15 and 18 and I’ll try to stay that way for as long as possible.”