Rickie Fowler is looking to build on his first pro win when he competes in this week's Australian PGA Championship.
American young gun takes on stellar field in Australian PGA
Rickie Fowler is looking to build on his first victory as a professional when he competes in this week's Australian PGA Championship.
The 23-year-old American claimed the spoils at the Korea Open in October and after five weeks off to recharge his batteries, he is ready for his first pro tournament in Australia.
Fowler's only concern is that the greens at Coolum are playing slower and softer than he would prefer.
"I'm looking forward to it staying firm and getting quicker," he said after a practice round on Wednesday.
"There is a lot of variety off the tee so I don't think I'll just hit driver off everywhere, so I'm looking forward to the week. Hopefully the rain will stay away so the course can firm up a bit."
Fowler does have previous experience of playing in Australia. He won the world amateur title at Adelaide in 2008 and played in another amateur event at Melbourne's Yarra Yara course the following year.
Return to form
Open champion Darren Clarke is targeting a return to form following a lean spell since his success at Royal St George's in July.
"It's not the longest course, but the way they've got it set up dictates you don't hit a driver everywhere," he said.
"It's nice that the premiums are on accuracy as opposed to just bombing it everywhere. It's different, but I was very impressed with it."
As well as Fowler and Clarke, the stellar field also includes eight players who took part in last week's Presidents Cup.
Bubba Watson is the only member of the winning US team to have made the trip to Coolum while there are seven of the defeated Interantionals - South Koreans YE Yang and Kim Kyung-Tae along with Australians Geoff Ogilvy, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby.
Two-time Open champion Greg Norman, the non-playing captain of the Internationals, will also be teeing off in the $1.5 million event.
Norman will play in a marquee group alongside Scott and Clarke while Fowler tees off with with fellow 23-year-old Day and Yang.
Watson will play the first two days with Australian Open champion Greg Chalmers and another in-form Aussie John Senden.
