Abu Dhabi: The last-minute withdrawal of World No 2 Rory McIlroy from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship with a rib injury will not take the sheen off the tournament, defending champion Rickie Fowler has said — and nor will it make it any easier to triumph, he insisted.
“No. You know, it’s one less top player in the world I’m going to have to beat, but the field here is one of the best on the European Tour. Three of the major champions from last year are here. It’s not going to be any easier to win,” said Fowler, who recalled that it was ‘fun’ to have McIlroy in contention with him last year at the capital course.
“It’s a bummer that Rory is not going to be able to play this week. He’s definitely a fan favourite and I love playing against him. We’ve had a lot of good battles and good times together. Like I said, hopefully he’s not out long and able to get back, and he’s obviously playing well. He played well last week,” added Fowler, who will be attempting to become the second player, following Martin Kaymer (2010-11), to make a successful defence of the title.
“It’s definitely nice to be back here. I had a few good tournaments after this last year, but individually I didn’t play as well as I would have liked to. It was definitely nice to get the win here to kick off the year. It would have been nice to kind of continue that form,” said the 28-year-old.
“2016 was still a great year. Getting to play in the Olympics to the World Cup and finally being part of a winning Ryder Cup Team. Europeans have been able to enjoy that. Definitely some great memories here and looking forward to making some more. I played okay here last year and I enjoy the golf course. Hopefully, like I said, nothing too crazy and we’ll be good to go for Thursday,” revealed Fowler, who since 2014, when he made the top five in all four Majors (Tiger Woods and Jordan Speith are the two other golfers to do so), has not been able to make any significant impact, a record that he is looking to get straight.
“The last couple years, the majors have been kind of the No. 1 point to look at, especially after ‘14, having good finishes there. So yeah, the majors, for me, that’s probably the No. 1 goal,” added Fowler, who feels that there are exciting times ahead for golf this season with Woods making a comeback.
“Tiger playing next week and then coming over here to play in Dubai, it’s nice to see him play well in the Bahamas. Excited to see him come back and be competitive. I know he’s itching to play as much as possible. Rory just needs to make sure he’s healthy and good to go.
“J.T.’s [Justin Thomas] gotten off to a decent start, so he’s going to have a good year if he keeps playing the way he’s playing. I appreciated him finally taking a week off so the rest of us could have a chance.”
