Rickie Fowler delivers the line with a broad smile which barely masks the ferocious competitive spirit for which he has been known since childhood. “Taking the past two years and putting them together? I should win a major next year.”
The timeframe in question spans two contrasting but surely pivotal years in the development of one of golf’s most appealing stars. Last year, Fowler produced a stunning but frustrating run of top-five finishes in each of the four majors. In the US Open and the Open he finished second. As 2015 draws to a close, the Californian can reflect on worse major form but breakthrough successes: at the Players Championship, Deutsche Bank Championship and Scottish Open.
“I think in 2014 I probably overall played a little better and had more consistency,” Fowler says. “This year I was just able to put myself in contention more often; I may not have been playing as well but when I got in those situations I wasn’t scared of it, I felt really confident. I was out there to get the job done.”
So which was the more memorable? “This one, when I won,” Fowler admits. “Last year definitely set me up, it made me feel comfortable in those situations but actually getting the job done and winning tournaments in the heat of battle was very satisfying.
“I feel like getting to major winning is definitely a process. Some guys win them earlier than others. Some guys not so much get lucky but just happen to be in the right place at the right time and get one early in their career. Then you have Jordan Spieth, who is going to win multiple majors. I feel like after the last two years, I am in a great position to start winning majors. I just have to get that first one.”
That won’t, however, be the consequence of golfing obsession. “It’s funny, you get people that hate on you saying ‘you should be playing golf and practising every day’,” he says. “That’s not what makes you better. Being rounded and having a bit of normality in your life is important.”
We meet in a Shanghai hotel where he is preparing for this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions tournament. Fowler laughs off the notion he has had a long day, fulfilling sponsor commitments overseas. He gets it. “If you want to be one of the best players in the world or become that, there comes a spotlight and responsibility.”
As we begin to talk, a sense of normality recedes; the Hollywood super-agent Ari Emanuel approaches Fowler, hugs him and recounts their meeting last summer. Fowler not only has talent, he has status that belies humble beginnings in Murrieta, south of Los Angeles. Fowler’s father, Rod, provided sand and gravel to a golf range in exchange for Rickie being given balls to hit. Fowler wasn’t afforded the privilege of club membership in his youth.
Now golf is in the midst of an evolving global narrative with Fowler among those in the vanguard. Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, revealed this week in Shanghai that television ratings for his organisation improved 20% last season. Finchem credits that boost to the engagement Fowler, Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day provide as the golfing icons of this generation. This group combine talent with excitement, none more so than Fowler. It no longer needs whispering that Tiger Woods has been usurped, albeit by a gang rather than an individual.
We live in an age of comparison, as Fowler well knows. At 26, he is the odd one out among the four faces of this era having not yet added major glory to his list of achievements.
“Tiger actually screwed up a lot of those comparisons for us because he came out and did stuff that doesn’t happen, other than how much Arnie and Jack won,” Fowler says. “For Tiger to have over 30% as a winning percentage for a spell; to have anywhere from five to 10 would be impressive. It was unthinkable, really, and it made comparisons tough.
“Right now we have a lot of good young players and I want to be compared to those guys. I need to win more and get majors on my résumé to be on that same category. I am probably just outside looking in right now.
“It is a long career, or that’s what you would hope for. I hope to be playing against Rory, Jordan, Jason, Bubba [Watson] for another 20 years. At least 10-15 of those are going to be through the best part of our playing careers. It is going to go by quickly but that is still a lot of golf to be played so I am definitely not pushing or feeling like I am behind.”
McIlroy, Spieth and Watson will join Fowler in the field for the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament, which begins on Thursday. On Tuesday, the tournament sponsor announced a lucrative five-year extension to its commitment to the sport. In east Asia, interest naturally surrounds whether or not promoting the game in the area will soon translate to high-profile success; Guan Tianlang, who played in the Masters at 14, has been followed by the most recent winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Jin Cheng. At 17, he will head for Augusta in April.
Fowler has a vested interest. His great-grandparents emigrated from Japan to the United States in the 1920s – his middle name is Yakuta, after the grandfather who introduced him to golf – and he believes the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 could see an Asian man win a medal at golf.
Just a fortnight ago, Fowler spent time in the Japanese capital. “I love it there, the culture, the food; it feels natural to me,” he explains. The beaming smile is back.
The next Olympics also plays on Fowler’s mind. Given the depth of American talent, and the fact only four players from the world’s top 15 can qualify, he will inevitably be involved in a battle to reach Rio next summer. It is a challenge, typically, Fowler relishes.
“It has been a thought ever since it was announced that we would be a part of 2016,” he says. “I feel like if I do well in the majors and take care of playing well, that is going to be a bonus on the year. If I play well, I will hold my world ranking – if not better it – and be a part of that team. Right now, you would have to be ranked fifth or sixth in the world to be part of that US team so it will be tough but as I said, if I continue to play well and focus on what I have been doing, that will come.
“I always dreamed of being in an Olympic opening ceremony and walking out for my country but that was never a reality because golf wasn’t part of it. I always watched it without being part of it as a possibility. I would watch summer and winter Olympics every time they were on. So that would be the thing I would look forward to most, that walk in the opening and closing ceremonies.”
When 2016 dawns, Fowler aims to let the recent past positively shape his future.
