Rickie Fowler admits he has 'work to do' to catch golf's big three
When Tiger Woods was in his prime, he was the face of golf. He was the player every fan wanted to watch, and if he wasn't at a particular tournament, ratings and crowds around the greens showed it. That was years ago, and times have changed since that point.
Woods is no longer in the picture; instead, it's a "big three" made up of Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy leading the way. The trio has combined to win seven major championships and are weekly favorites at each event they play in. That's no different this week at the U.S. Open, but there's a young player waiting in the wings to join the group: Rickie Fowler.
Fowler hasn't had the same success Day, Spieth and McIlroy have had in recent years, but he's been close -- really close. In 2014 alone, he finished in the top five of all four majors, coming in second in two of those. Since then, he's struggled in golf's biggest tournaments, failing to finish better than tied for 12th in any major.
He was once knocking on the door of being amongst the best young players in the game, and he knows how to get back to that point. It comes down to the majors.
Winning this week at Oakmont won't necessarily put Fowler back in the conversation of being amongst the three best players in the world, and he knows that. It's going to take much more than one major championship to do that, but winning the year's second major -- one that figures to be the toughest event of the year -- would be a step in the right direction.
"So it's all a process. A major will come," he said. "If I put the last two years together, that would equal a major this year, but they don't come that easy. So we've got some work to do, and looking forward to chasing those guys down. We're all good buddies. We all feed off each other, and we enjoy getting to play each other and the competition.''
