NASSAU, Bahamas — When Rickie Fowler left Albany Golf Club a year ago this week as the winner of the Hero World Challenge, energized by the Sunday 61 he shot to erase a seven-shot deficit, he felt certain there were more victories to come for him in the coming year.
Yet that was the last time Fowler won as he gets ready to defend his title this week.
“Last year was a real nice way to end it, being seven back and birdieing the first seven holes, putting myself back in a position to go win,’’ Fowler said Wednesday. “Unfortunately, [I] haven’t won since then, so [I] need to win again and get things turned around for the rest of the year.’’
Fowler, ranked No. 9 in the world, called 2018 “a fairly consistent season, putting myself in contention a lot, putting myself in great positions at the majors.
“It’s not like it was a bad year by any means, [I] just didn’t win,’’ he said. “[I] just never really got the job done. So [my] main goal going into this year — the ultimate goal is to have a major — but just go win more. And if one of those wins happens to be a major, that would be the ultimate goal.’’
Though he’s still considered part of the younger generation on the PGA Tour, Fowler is 29 and entering his 10th year as a pro.
“I’ve always heard that 30s were your prime, so we’re just getting into it,’’ Fowler said. “I don’t see any kind of rush [to win more] or anything like that. I look at the next five to 10 years as the time to take advantage of things and make sure that we’re not sitting back and just relaxing, go out and take care of what we want to take care of and see what can happen.
“I would say 40s is a little bit more of where we’d look at prime would be kind of in the rearview mirror. So I’m looking forward to these next five to 10 years of taking advantage of them and making them count.
“The motivating side of it I don’t really need help with. I love to play golf. I think some of it is at times maybe wanting it too much or maybe pushing too hard. Just go out and have some fun. Obviously, I want to try and play the best that I can, that’s going to happen, but a little bit more just kind of letting things happen, go out there and have fun and kind of play the game and enjoy it.’’
