Sunday 24 January 2016 20:43, UK
Rickie Fowler set his sights on a first major title after winning the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on Sunday and climbing to a career-high fourth in the world rankings.
The American took a two-shot lead in to the final round, before recovering from a double-bogey at the seventh to post a three-under 69 and finish one clear of nearest challenger Thomas Pieters.
A two-putt par at the last was enough to Fowler's fourth in just eight months worldwide, but the 27-year-old feels he still needs major victory to move alongside golf's "Big Three" of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy.
"The ultimate goal this year is to go win a major and this is a step in the right direction for sure," Fowler said."It's nice to have the game where it's at right now going into the season, instead of trying to work on things and trying to find stuff.
"Right now I can go and fine tune and really build ultimately for Augusta. This is really the first time in my career I've had this feeling about my game and where it's at.
"I'd like to jump in and be a part of that (major winning) crew. They are the three highest-ranked players in the world. There's no way around that and the three of them have played amazing. I want to be a part of the crew."
Fowler had been somewhat overshadowed when playing alongside McIlroy and Spieth in the first two rounds, but admitted their presence this week made the victory all the sweeter.
"It does," Fowler added. "We had a very strong field and not just Rory and Jordan, but also Henrik and down the line. It was a packed leaderboard at the top.
"It feels great to come here and win my first full-field event of 26. This is a great way to start and a step in the right direction."
