This is my time, declares Rickie Fowler

Rickie Fowler came close at all four of last year’s major championships but now he is The Players champion, the American feels he is even better equipped to finally make his breakthrough at this week’s US Open.

The omens are good for the 26-year-old, whose last appearance was a tie for 30th finish in the Irish Open at Royal County Down a fortnight ago.

A runner-up in The Open last July at Royal Liverpool, Fowler has the nous to succeed at Chambers Bay this week on a course drawing comparisons with some of the great British and Irish links courses. What’s more, this year’s defending champion, Martin Kaymer, used his Players Championship victory in 2014 as a springboard to the US Open title a month later, when Fowler came a distant second.