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HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 5, 2016Rickie FowlerKapalua, Maui, Hawaii JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Rickie Fowler into the interview room, making his second start at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, having finished T6 here in 2013. Two wins last year, winning THE PLAYERS Championship and Deutsche Bank Championship. I know you felt pretty good about coming back to Maui. Talk about being here for the second time. RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it's great to be back. I really enjoyed the time I was here last time, which was three years ago, and I told myself I'd try and make it a little bit more of a habit or regular visit. Had a few years off, but nice to get the wins that I did this year, or this past year, and it's been a great time here on Maui so far. Got to spend about five days down at Makena, a new Discovery property down south. Spent the day at Jaws actually watching some of my good friends surf, and now getting ready to play some golf. Great way to start the year. JOHN BUSH: I know this was the third start of the season for you, but comment a little bit about how you top last year, which was a career year for you. RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, the biggest thing going forward is continue to get myself in contention and give myself chances to win. But the main goal going into this year is focusing on the majors, first one obviously being Augusta, getting myself into contention there, and would really like to knock off my first major. Q. You mentioned obviously trying to get better and you want to win a major. You look at the calendar ahead and this rotation, Augusta is always the same, but how do you assess the other three and what do you like about them or what maybe might fit your game? RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I've played Baltusrol, so that's the only other one that I've seen other than Augusta. We're at Troon, correct? Yeah, I've never been to Troon, and I haven't played Oakmont. So it will be Oakmont I'm going to try to get to before. I think the plan was to possibly go out there the Monday before tournament week. Then Troon is tough to get over and play early, so I'll have to come back to some of my old ways and try and get ready as quickly as possible. But I love playing links golf, so anytime we're on a links course, I like my chances and the way my game plays over there. I enjoy Baltusrol. I've played a couple rounds there, and Augusta is always going to be one of my favorites. So it's going to be a one rotation. I've heard a lot of good things about Oakmont, that it's a good, tough, challenging golf course. That's what you want when you go to a major. You want kind of the best to rise to the top, ball-striking and putting and short game, so I've heard that's a great test. Q. Presumably even if you don't know anything about any particular major venue, you're building your game to be able to compete at majors, so in some ways do you feel like that's where you're at as far as how you've been progressing in your game? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, over the past couple years I feel like I know what I'm bringing to the golf course day in and day out, and I know what I'm working with. That makes things a lot easier to not have to worry about working on something specific or if the game is going to be on point that week I can go in and focus more on, hey, this is where I want to hit it. This is where we're going to attack the golf course and how we're going to get our way around. Last year I didn't have the greatest in the majors after the year before, but I think a combination of the two years, going with how I was able to hang around and get some top finishes in the majors in '14 and then last year to go out and get the wins. You put those two together, and we win a major this year. Q. A couple different things: One, what do you need to get or what did you need to get better in in your game for this year? And secondly, what would make a great year for you this year? RICKIE FOWLER: Winning a major would be a great year and to continue the way I've been playing. One thing that we've been focusing on mostly outside of just swinging and working getting better all around, but 150 yards and in, just trying to get where things are a little tighter, getting the ball closer to the hole, proximity to the hole from that range. Those are your scoring clubs, and you're teaming up against the best players in the world, guys that you've got to be on top of your wedge game, basically 150 and in, 9-iron and down, but 9-iron is almost a wedge basically. You're looking to get the ball in there close and have a good look at birdie. The so the more that you can give yourself good quality looks and stay away from making mistakes from that yardage the better, so we'll see if we can get some closer and take advantage of that. Q. Similar to Jordan, he said he feels like this is continuation from last year. Both you guys were in the Bahamas. How do you kind of view it or do you have a specific set of goals? You talked about the majors, but anything outside of that? RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I feel like I kind of look at the Bahamas and here as almost a bonus or a reward in a way. Everyone that's earned their way here is here for a reason, for the way that they've played, and it's a fun group to be around. Best players in the world, obviously one being off wins, one being off World Rankings, and it's a fun week with families, as well, both the Bahamas and here. A lot of people brought families and friends along. I think it's a fun balance in a way. Everyone is here to obviously play well. It's still a golf tournament and here we're trying to win. But in a way the seasons are becoming a little bit more of a wraparound and continuing to go with the flow. I played China the first week of November, then Bahamas the first week of December, so you get a little bit of break, a few weeks in there, but there's never that extended period where you've been away from competitive golf for very long. Q. How much fun did you have with the boys this morning, and how well does this golf course fit your game? RICKIE FOWLER: We had a great time. We had some good matches going out there. It was unfortunate that everything came out all square, in all three matches. So we had fun. It's always a good time being out with some good friends. Everyone out here is very close as we travel year in and year out together, so it's a good time. This golf course is a lot of fun to play. I hope the wind is up a little bit. I enjoy playing in the wind, and I feel like around this course you've got to have a good imagination and visualize shots and be ready for some awkward lies, and the greens can get crazy in the wind. Maybe a little less than three years ago when we had to restart a few times, but some normal wind would be fun. Yeah, I've definitely enjoyed the couple rounds that I've gotten this week, and looking forward to the pro-am and getting things started. Q. We have numbers 1, 2, 4 and 6 in this field, 13 guys in the top 30, a top of Presidents Cup guys. How impressive is this year's field for this tournament in your mind? RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I'm glad you included me at 6 in there. No, it just shows you the guys that won last year, a lot of the top players, and we've got some guys that it's their first year. It's an impressive field. You walk up and down the range and see the guys that are here hanging for the week, you look at it as these are some of the best players in the world, obviously, and it's going to take some good golf to have a chance to win this week. Q. Given the success that you had last year, Jordan, Jason, a lot of 20-something-year-old kids, J.T., et cetera, can you sort of feel this generational shift? Obviously Tiger being out, don't know when he's going to be back, Phil 46? Do you sort of feel the change out there? RICKIE FOWLER: I definitely feel like you can -- it seems like the younger guys are picking up momentum as far as building more and more confidence just off of seeing other guys play well helps elevate their game, and to continue all of us to push each other. Like I said, it's fun to see your buddies win. Seeing Justin win in Malaysia and seeing what Jordan did last year, and Jason, the summer he put together, and Rory continuing to play well, Brooks has been playing well these past couple years, it's a lot of fun. Like I said, it motivates me, and we all want to kick each other's butts out on the golf course, but at the end of the day we're all close friends, so that's where it's fun to see them play well, but at the same time you want to go out and beat them. Q. Where do you kind of put yourself specifically in the conversation with Rory, Jason, Jordan? They all have majors, of course, and I know you talked about that, but Jason says he feels like he's playing his best nobody can beat him. Just kind of your viewpoint on yourself in that conversation with those guys? RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, I feel like to be in the same conversation I need to get a major and get that on the resumé to at least have some sort of credentials to be there. I know with my finishes in '14 and to get the wins last year, finally get myself to be one of the top -- definitely inside the top 10 now, I'm sixth in the world, so it was a successful couple of years, and continuing to work on building that. But I'm just looking forward to working on being the best that I can be. The ultimate goal is to be the best player in the world. I obviously have some pretty tough competition out there. But yeah, I'm looking forward to playing up against these guys for a long time, and I really feel like, like Jason said, any of the guys that are out here playing for a living or you really feel like you're one of the best players in the world, that you should truly believe that if you have your best game that week that nobody should be able to beat you. Some guys get a little lucky sometimes, and luck is part of it. I mean, to win sometimes you need that. You may not have your best game, but you get a couple good bounces you end up winning. A lot of times you look at what you're seeing, you look at Jason at the PGA, he had his best and he won. And Jordan may have -- I think he got off to a little bit of a slower start, but that was some pretty good golf right there between the two of them. I think that's what you're going to see. Guys are going to have to have all their games to win against these guys now. Q. You're No. 6 in the world; was your game or is your game at this point good enough to win a major? RICKIE FOWLER: Definitely. Q. So then when you talk about improving or what you need to improve, when you're doing that, what is that giving you do you feel? RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I mean, if we talk about where I'm really focusing, 150 yards and in, if I can hit the ball closer and on average get the ball closer to the hole, that just makes things easier as far as I don't have to go make a 15-, 20- footer, hit balls closer, seven, eight, 12 feet. Percentages on the putting go up statistically just on being closer to the hole. I mean, it's not about working on the swing in a certain way or trying to hit a certain shot, but statistically if I can hit the ball close to the hole, I'm going to make more birdies. Q. How much in your mind does luck have to do with you winning a major? RICKIE FOWLER: Well, if I have 100 percent of my game and I hit everything perfect, no one is going to beat me. That's what you have to believe, like Jason said. But in reality of that happening and hitting everything perfect, that's not going to happen. Every once in a while a good bounce here or there or a ball catching the edge and going in versus staying out, there's a lot of momentum shift out there, and a good bounce, whether you call it lucky or not, those definitely help. Q. You're talking about stats and what you can improve on, and Jordan was kind of doing the same thing. Since you've been out on TOUR do you feel like you guys look at stats more closely than you initially did, or how has that evolved in your mind? RICKIE FOWLER: I think just being aware of the game and some of the info that we have access to, as far as whether it's driving distance or hitting fairways, greens, where you're missing it, how the putting is and short game stats, just gives you feedback and being able to go back and understand what can improve. You're looking at stats against some of the guys that are at the top of the leaderboard in that category, and just gives you an understanding of where you can close gaps and how you can become a better player. Q. And on a totally different note, you looked like you were playing really well out there in the practice match. Was it you and Brandt and then you and Jimmy against Jordan and Justin? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, so Jordan and Justin played the three of us in all two-way combos you can make, so there was three matches going, and yeah, I played well. All of us kind of played about the same. No one really lit it up. That's why all the matches were pretty close, never more than 1-up or 1-down. I think Jordan and Justin were 1-up and everything going into the last hole, and we made some birdies to halve it out. Q. Did you make the birdie? RICKIE FOWLER: I made a birdie and Jimmy made a birdie, and Brandt actually, I think he lipped out for birdie. We gave ourselves -- Q. Clutch? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, we closed it down the stretch. Q. We've been kind of bandying about between ourselves about the likelihood of the Big Three, which we call them right now, which is Jason, Rory and Jordan, the likelihood that they would not win a major versus winning a major. What would you think would be more likely this year, that one of them would win a major or that all three of them would be shut out this year? RICKIE FOWLER: I think it's more likely that one of the three will win one. Those three got to playing their best over the past year. I'd like to say I wasn't far off, but those are the three guys that you definitely talk about right now, and their games are impressive. I'd say it's more likely than they'd win versus not. Q. (Inaudible.) RICKIE FOWLER: Spending time with the family. JOHN BUSH: Rickie Fowler, thanks very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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