Tiger Woods remains the biggest name and icon in golf and his effect on those around him when playing golf has always been obvious.
Whether it be the other players knowing Tiger is right there in contention, or simply having to deal with the amount of eyeballs on your pairing, playing with Woods has always carried extra burden.
Nevertheless, some on the PGA Tour are more used to it than others. The likes of Fred Couples, Justin Thomas and more are all good friends with Woods, meaning plenty of practice rounds together.
How many majors would Tiger Woods have won without his injuries?
Another who can count himself as in Woods’ ‘circle’ is Rickie Fowler.
However, with Woods making a surging comeback in 2017, even Fowler himself admitted to letting Woods’ aura get the better of him.
Why Rickie Fowler allowed Tiger Woods to bother him
Going back to The Hero World Challenge in 2017, Woods was once again coming back from injury and looking to regain form.
He certainly showed glimpses at that tournament, finishing at eight under par as the aforementioned Fowler ran out the winner.
However, while Fowler might have won, speaking at the time, he admitted he had Woods to thank a bit for honing his game.
“One of the times we played 18 holes, I was going back to work out and he went and played another nine,” Fowler said back in ’17. “I think he sharpened me up a little bit. I’d gotten a little scared of how good he was playing at home, thought I needed to start playing a little bit better.
“Tiger’s still going to have that similar effect when you see his name on the board coming down the last nine holes and being in the mix. You know he’s not scared. He’s done it, he’s been there before. I wouldn’t say guys are scared. I think they’re more excited about it and having him back and having the chance to play against Tiger, and we want to see him play well. It’s only better for our game.
“I want all the guys I play against to be the best that they can be. I want to be able to beat guys that are playing at their best at that time. Whether Tiger can get back to where he was in early 2000s, we don’t know. Could he get close? Possibly.”
Rickie Fowler’s 2026 is going to be huge for his career
It seems so long ago now that we looked at Rickie Fowler here at this tournament and were tipping him to go and become a multi-time major winner.
As we know, Woods himself has even managed one more since then, winning the 2019 Masters in magnificent fashion to make it 15 major wins.
Fowler, though, remains on zero.
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Going into 2026, it feels like he is facing a key season in his career. The wins have dried up more or less completely for Fowler, while he’s never even in the discussion when we look at who can win the majors.
If that doesn’t change in 2026, we might well have already seen the best of Fowler and his career will continue into decline.
Hopefully, he can find the form he showed with Tiger from 2017. If not, we’ll be looking at one of the great ‘what ifs’ of golf.
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