Rickie Fowler and Lexi Thompson: Is 4 Their Lucky Number?

Rickie Fowler and Lexi Thompson are poised to make twin charges to the top of the world golf rankings.

What do Rickie Fowler and Lexi Thompson have in common? Let’s make a list. They’re both professional golfers and they both have superb flair. Lexi always matches – visors, shoes, glove, shirt – always. And Rickie – from orange jump suits and flat-billed caps to high-tops and jogging pants – has a knack for sartorial edginess.

They’re both millennials – that hard-working, tech-savvy, clever, resourceful generation that’s poised to take over the world.

They’re both getting ready to go seriously to work on Thursday. Fowler’s teeing it up at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open and Thompson’s doing the same on Paradise Island at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic.

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Oh yes, and they’re both sitting on number 4 in the world rankings. They’re poised to challenge the pinnacle, to push themselves to the limit of their physical and mental capacity and beyond, to go from great to the greatest. That’s very exciting, for them as athletes and for us, as fans!

Rickie Fowler and Lexi Thompson came of age during the era when Tiger Woods dominated men’s golf and Annika Sorenstam dominated the women’s game. They know what a rock star athlete looks like. They had fantastic role models.

They both have talent and they’ve both put in the time and hard work – invisible if you’re standing behind the ropes but essential preparation in the world of competitive athletics – that it takes to the highest level of athletic performance; and they’re both going into a new calendar year doing just that.

Fowler just hoisted the Falcon Trophy that has eluded Rory McIlroy for three years and now he’s going to take on another of golf’s new rock stars, Jason Day. Twitter was trumpeting the consequences of Fowler’s victory last Sunday in advance of the OWGR revision.

My colleague Sam Belden as well as the oddsmakers are giving Day the advantage at Torrey Pines, but I don’t think it’s such a sure bet. We won’t know until Sunday afternoon, of course, but what I do know is that Rickie Fowler is a guy whose star is ascending and he wants it to be hanging in the center of the sky come April and Augusta National.

Thompson’s just getting her 2016 season started but she’s in much the same position as Fowler, fired up and ready to take on two of the three player who’ve been dominating the upper ranks of women’s golf for the last 36 months. She’s outplayed Lydia Ko, Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis at one point or another over the past three years, so she knows she has the game to do it again. She needs only to do it consistently, and she’s limbering up her sticks right now.

Olympic spot is a priority as @Lexi Thompson takes on 2016 https://t.co/0XxSux3SPA @LPGA @golf_com #womensgolf pic.twitter.com/SEhc5pBnHj
— Women's Golf (@WomensGolf) January 21, 2016

Fore!

Next: Top 10 Millennial Golfers

ProGolfNow will follow Fowler’s battle with Day and Thompson’s challenge to Stacy Lewis and Inbee Park this week on Twitter @ProGolfNow.

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