No,
not Conquest, Slaughter, Famine and Death.
It’s Spieth, McIlroy, Day and now Rickie Fowler. Perhaps not as fearsome as the famous biblical
figures, the rest of the PGA Tour might
consider this quartet equally as formidable when trying to beat them on the links
this year.
After Fowler’s victory in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on January
24, 2016, becoming the first American to win the Abu Dhabi championship since
2006, Fowler moved up in the world rankings to the fourth spot behind Speith,
Day and McIlroy. Arguably Fowler has
snatched the title of “Best Golfer Without a Win In a Major Tournament”, at
least temporarily, from Dustin Johnson.
However, the Fowler Slam, i.e., a top-five finish in
all four majors in one calendar year, which Fowler accomplished in 2014, was a portrait
of things to come. Only two other
golfers in the modern ear (Nicklaus in 1971 and 1973, Tiger Woods in 2000 and
2005) accomplished the Fowler Slam before Spieth replicated the feat in
2015. (Ben Hogan won, the first three
majors in 1953, a feat unmatched in golf history, but then was unable to
compete in the PGA Championship, as the tournament was held simultaneously with
the Open Championship that year.)
While Fowler missed the cut last week at Torrey
Pines (joining good company with Phil
Mickelson and Day), I fully expect Fowler to ride his pale horse to a Majors victory
in 2016 and relinquish the title previously owned by Mr. Johnson back to Dustin,
further cementing Fowler’s membership on the Four Horsemen. In which case the rest of the PGA Tour may be
heard to mutter the final words of W. B. Yeats famous poem (and epitaph), Under
Ben Bulben:
Cast a cold eye
on life, on death.
Horseman, pass by.
AMDG
© R. E. Kelly 2012-2016
