During the 2015 golf season there was plenty of discussion of a New Big 3 that hearkened back to the glory days of the original Big 3, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.
The “New Big 3” was comprised of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy. All were major winners and ranked one to three in the World Golf Rankings. Thrown into the mix was the very popular Rickie Fowler who many said should constitute a New Big 4 if you will.
But true to Fowler’s confident self assessment he said he needed to win a major before true consideration could be given to expanding the trio to a quartet.
Fowler treats the media to champagne
Well, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship isn’t a major but it certainly is a healthy start to the season for Fowler.
Fowler outlasted a field that included Spieth, McIlroy and world number five Henrik Stenson for his fifth world wide win and fourth victory since last may.
The win is projected to move Fowler up to number four in the world rankings and continues his march to making that threesome a foursome. In his 2016 debut he was fifth at the Tournament of Champions.
He shot a 3 under 69 to top Thomas Pieters by a single stroke and McIlroy and Stenson by two. Spieth finished five shots back in a tie for fifth.
Fowler did let the field back in for a minute when he doubled bogeyed the par three seventh but a superb hole out from a bunker for an unlikely eagle got him back on track.
As McIlroy crept closer with a birdie on sixteen and an eagle on the last and Stenson gained three shots in the last four holes Fowler extended his lead to two strokes with a nifty chip in birdie on seventeen.
His last challenger was Pieters who birdied eighteen to get to -15 but all Fowler needed was an easy par on the last to close out the victory.
Fowler acknowledged Pieters fine play and knows that this victory may may have been a statement win.
“This is a big one,” Fowler said. “It was a lot of fun today. It was a bit stressful at times; Thomas was playing well. It was fun to go kind of head-to-head with him being in the same group, so we had a good time. It’s just nice to come out on top this week.”
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