Rickie Fowler brushes off ‘overrated’ criticism

Rickie Fowler, days after Golf.com unveiled a poll of PGA Tour players who, under the cloak of anonymity, ranked him and Ian Poulter as the most overrated golfers, was dismissed by Rory McIlroy as just another coulda-been rival.

“Last year it was Rickie, this year it’s Jordan,” McIlroy said earlier this week about all the guys pundits have expected to give him a run for his money but have fallen a dollar short in each instance. “Might be someone else. Could have been Tiger.”

Go ahead, pile on the neon-clad winner of the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship. He can take it.

“It’s fine by me,” Fowler told reporters on Thursday after matching McIlroy’s 3-under 69 and leaving the likes of Jordan Spieth (75) and Tiger Woods (73) in his dust in the opening round of The Players Championship.

“I’m going to try and play as well as I can this week and I’m going to take care of my business,” said Fowler, who came up just shy in all four grand slam events in 2014. “I guess top fives in four majors isn’t that good? So one of three isn’t that good? Like I said, I’ll take care of my business and I’ll be just fine.”

Poulter, whose sole tour win came in 2010, may have earned the scorn of his peers more than Fowler and went to Twitter to respond to the naysayers. Fowler fired back, suggesting a novel way to break the tie.

Despite the jocularity, and Fowler claiming not to be bruised by the anonymous assessments of his peers, a win at the so-called “Fifth Major” would certainly silence some doubters.