The arrival of Rory McIlroy on the PGA Tour probably will wind up
being the most ballyhooed debut since 19-year-old Sergio Garcia
showed up at the Masters in 1999.
Of course, the 20-year-old from Northern Ireland is not a
true rookie since he played in several events in the United States
last year, but this is the first year he has membership on the U.S.
Tour.
McIlroy, who makes his 2010 debut this week in the Abu Dhabi
Championship in the United Arab Emirates on the European Tour, is
the future of golf.
And not only golf writers are saying it.
"We can all see it," Tiger Woods said last year of McIlroy.
"The way he hits the golf ball, the way he putts, the way he can
chip, get up-and-down. He has the composure. He has all of the
components to be the best player in the world, there's no doubt."
Ernie Els and Geoff Ogilvy have said virtually the same.
Interestingly, as Woods has Phil Mickelson, and Arnold
Palmer had Jack Nicklaus, McIlroy might have a challenger who as it
happens is coming onto the circuit at exactly the same time.
Rickie Fowler, a 21-year-old who left college powerhouse
Oklahoma State after his sophomore season, made his debut as a PGA
Tour member last week and will tee it up Thursday in the Bob Hope
Classic, not far from his home in Murrieta, Calif.
Fowler was so amped at Waialae that he made two double
bogeys in his first seven holes to go 6-over-par at that point, and
he never recovered while shooting 75-72--147 to miss the cut by six
strokes.
Still, he seems to have the stuff to take on McIlroy for
years to come.
"I played with (Fowler) in the third round in Scottsdale at
the Frys Open (last fall), and you know, he's got a very solid
game, hits the ball a good way, has a great short game, makes a lot
of putts," Justin Leonard said.
"I mean, that's a great combination, and he's got a lot of
confidence right now in the way he's playing, as well he should.
And you know, it's fun to see a young player like that come right
out of college and do so well. You know, he certainly has the kind
of the pedigree to be playing the way he's playing."
Will Mackenzie, who also played alongside Fowler late last
season, said: "Maybe this is one of the guys that's going to whip
off a couple majors."
Instead of turning pro right after the college season ended
in the spring, Fowler waited so he could play in the Walker Cup
matches for the second time in September at Merion. He posted a 4-0
record to help the Americans retain the cup and finished with a 7-1
mark in his two appearances.
Then he showed that he was ready to play for pay.
Because he waited so long to turn pro, Fowler gave himself
only four tournaments last fall in which to make enough money to
join Mickelson, Woods, Leonard, Gary Hallberg, Ryan Moore and
Charles Howell III as the only players in the last 30 years to go
directly from college golf to the PGA Tour without attending
Q-school.
Fowler needed to earn as much or more than the 125th-ranked
player on the PGA Tour money list, which turned out to be Jimmy
Walker with $662,683, and when the Viking Classic was canceled
because of heavy rain his chances were down to three.
He tied for seventh in the Justin Timberlake Shriners
Hospitals for Children Open and nearly won the Frys.com Open before
losing in a playoff, posting eight consecutive rounds in the 60s.
That meant Fowler needed to finish in the top 10 in the
Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World to pull it
off, but he managed only a tie for 40th and wound up with $571,090
in three tournaments.
It didn't even faze him.
"Well, not what we wanted but it was a fun 5 weeks, 3
tourneys, and 570K," Fowler posted on Twitter after the season
finale. "Off to ... the final stage of q school."
Fowler had earned enough money in his three starts to bypass
the first two stages of Q-school, and he breezed through the final
exams with a 15th-place finish at Palm Beach, Fla.
Then he stayed in the area the following week to rub elbows
with some of his new colleagues when he teamed with Chris DiMarco
in the Shark Shootout.
He turned 21 on the final day of the event, and the gallery
behind the 18th green serenaded him with a rousing version of
"Happy Birthday." Not much of a drinker, he said he might celebrate
with a glass of wine with his girlfriend, Alexandra Browne,
daughter of touring pro Olin Browne.
So far, he's handled the hype with poise well beyond his
years.
"It's definitely cool that people are out there talking
about me like that," he told reporters last week in Hawaii. "But,
you know, I look at it as people are saying it, there's that
possibility.
"I'll just go out and keep doing what I've been doing, just
keep playing my game. If I put myself in that situation, it would
be awesome. I really don't try to worry much about what people are
saying or writing about me."
There has been plenty of that for him to try to ignore since
he shot 10-under-par 62 at the Southern California Golf Association
Golf Course in Murrieta to win the Southern California High School
Championship in 2004 as a 14-year-old freshman.
Those who did not yet know his name have been paying
attention since he nearly earned a two-year exemption on the PGA
Tour in the Frys Open last October before losing a playoff to Troy
Matteson.
Earlier in the year, while still an amateur, he nearly
bagged his first victory in a professional event when he lost in a
playoff to Derek Lamely in the Children's Hospital Invitational on
the Nationwide Tour.
"I knew I could come out and play with these guys," said
Fowler, a former competitive motocross rider who was the No.
1-ranked amateur golfer in the world for 36 weeks in 2007 and 2008.
"But to come out for two events (on the PGA Tour) and finish
tied for seventh and lose in a playoff, you know, I definitely
wasn't expecting to do that. But you know ... I'm not doing
anything special.
"It's not like my game's all of a sudden elevated to some
crazy level or anything."
Perhaps that is because, like McIlory, golf's highest level
seems to be only the next one for Fowler.
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