World number nine Rickie Fowler says no player can fake it around TPC Sawgrass, host of The Players Championship, because it will ‘basically pick you apart’.
With so much hype around the young guns in golf, Fowler remains the youngest person in the field who has won the tournament, after his rollercoaster finish over the back nine in 2015 put him into a playoff with Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. Fowler then produced the goods on the infamous 17th to edge Kisner in the sudden death playoff, when Garcia exited after three holes.
‘Yeah, it is a very hard golf tournament to win,’ said Fowler, who missed the cut last year – adding further strength to the point that no player has gone back to back at the event.
‘it’s arguably the best field in golf and one of the best golf courses we play as far as a test. It tests all parts of your game. You got to hit a variety of golf shots around here.
‘You can’t fake it. It basically will pick you apart. So I think it does a very good job of that. You can go out and drive the ball well, and if you’re not on top of it, you can watch someone shoot 31 in the same group as someone shoots 41, 42. It’s a pretty fine line.’
Fowler’s win in 2015 was on the back of his top-5 finishes in all the Majors in 2014, and he admits to simply hanging on to the leaders before a solid weekend saw him climb into contention.
‘I was able to do a good job on Saturday in the round to just get the most out of it and then keep myself actually in the golf tournament. If I wasn’t able to do that, then I wouldn’t have had a chance on Sunday.
‘With where I was, with six holes to play, I had to make something happen, and that’s not always going to be the case. I’m not always going to finish the way I did to finish, I think it was 2, 4, 3, 3, 2, 3.
‘Yeah, I doubt I’ll ever be able to do that here again, but it was nice to get the job done and get myself in a playoff and ultimately be holding the crystal at the end.’
The Players Championship begins on Thursday – see the tee-times HERE!
