The Players Championship may never achieve its ambition of becoming the fifth major, but Rickie Fowler feels his 2015 victory at Sawgrass proves he will win one of the game’s four biggest titles.
Fowler has recorded multiple top-fives in all four majors, the most recent being a runners-up finish behind Ryder Cup team-mate Patrick Reed in the Masters in April.
And after extensive preparation ahead of the 118th US Open at Shinnecock Hills, the 29-year-old was in bullish mood about his prospects of avoiding the dreaded tag of “best player never to win a major”.
“There’s some scores that I’ve shot that have been good enough to win majors, but we haven’t been able to get it done that specific week,” Fowler said.
“At the same time, I like to look at it as that I’m good enough and I basically won a major. I won the Players against, arguably, the best field we play all year on a golf course that is a very good test as well.
“We all know I’m good enough to win. I know I’m good enough to win. Being prepared and making it happen that specific week, there’s been a few guys that have been very good at that… Jack (Nicklaus), Tiger (Woods).
“Phil (Mickelson) didn’t get his first for a while so there’s still hope. I’m not too worried about it. I’m excited about some of these courses that we have coming up, especially this week. But in the coming years, we have some great major venues.
“Augusta is one of my favourites and I have had success there. It would be nice to throw on a (green) jacket at some point, but we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. I’m definitely not trying to put any extra pressure on.
“We’ll get it done, and once we get our first, it’s definitely not going to be the last.”
Fowler was among the early starters in Thursday’s first round, the world number seven teeing off at 0813 local time (1313 BST) alongside Hideki Matsuyama and Marc Leishman.
Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Mickelson were in the group in front, but Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas and world number one Dustin Johnson had to wait until 1347 local time (1847 BST) to get their campaigns under way.
