Rickie Fowler finding winning touch

Rickie Fowler is looking good these days not only on the golf course, but in the win column.

The 27-year-old Fowler, a darling with the younger set because of his fashion style and action sports background, has broken through on the golf course since last year’s Masters Tournament.

He won The Players Championship in a playoff in May, the Scottish Open in July, the Deutsche Bank Championship in September, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in late January and nearly won in Phoenix in early February, losing in a playoff.

Before The Players win, Fowler’s only PGA Tour victory was the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship.

The week of The Players, an anonymous poll of PGA Tour players in Sports Illustrated listed Fowler and Ian Poulter as the game’s most overrated players.

“If there was any question, I think this right here answers anything you need to know,” Fowler said after his win, pointing to the trophy.

Even before his breakout year, Fowler accomplished something done by only three other players: he finished in the top five in all four majors. In 2014, he tied for fifth in the Masters, was second in both the U.S. Open and British Open and tied for third in the PGA Championship. Only Jack Nicklaus (1971 and 1973), Tiger Woods (2000, 2005) and Jordan Spieth (2015) have pulled that off.

“Anybody that can do that, if you’re in that position, you’re playing pretty danged well,” said Kevin Kisner, one of the players Fowler beat in The Players Championship playoff. “What is he supposed to be rated? What’s the threshold here on who calls what’s overrated? I wouldn’t get too worried about that. But I’m sure he was fired up to get that – whoever said that – off his shoulder.”

Fowler’s ranking in the world has jumped from 13th at last year’s Masters to fourth after he won in Dubai.

Fowler is still missing a major championship victory, but hopes to change that in his sixth start at Augusta National.

“I really love playing here,” Fowler said. “You get to use your imagination, it’s a ball‑striker’s golf course and you use your imagination around the greens as far as short game and putting. ...I probably started thinking about it as soon as the tournament finished last year. It’s a special place. You love going back to Augusta, everything about it.”

Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who is a regular playing partner with Fowler in practice rounds, believes Fowler is close to winning a major.

“I think that The Players Championship last year was a big stepping stone,” Mickelson said. “That’s a world-class tournament, and it’s just a minor step below a major. I feel that the way he drives the golf ball and the way he’s striking it now, it’s inevitable.”

Not everyone enjoys the fast and undulating Augusta National greens. Fowler isn’t one of them.

“I love the greens there,” he said. “I had one of my best putting rounds a couple of years back, in the first round, I got around there in 21 putts, probably one of my biggest accomplishments, when you’ve actually played Augusta and understand what these greens are all about. I seem to see these lines very well and have a great imagination and like being able to kind of draw up and see what the ball is going to do before I hit it.”

Fowler finished strong in the 2015 Masters, going 70-67 on the weekend after opening with 73-72. The turnaround actually came late in the second round when he “definitely flipped the switch” and played his final six holes in 4-under with birdies on Nos. 13, 15, 17 and 18.

“I just need to do that for 72 holes,” he said. “It seems like I get more and more comfortable the more times I come there and make more and more birdies.”

Fowler’s No. 1 goal this season is snagging a major.

“But I definitely wouldn’t look back if I won a couple times this year and didn’t win a major, I wouldn’t look at it as an unsuccessful year,” he said. “I think you have to be realistic and continue to look at things in the positive note, but also kind of dig deeper into the parts of the game where we’re trying to get better this year. If I can continue to make steps forward with that, that’s ultimately what I want to do – grow my game, make that better and the results are going to follow.”