EXCLUSIVE: Rickie Fowler sends retirement message to Tiger Woods after PGA Tour legend told to call it quits

Much has been said about the future of 15-time major champion Tiger Woods heading into this week’s Open, but Rickie Fowler believes the golfing great still has plenty left in the rank

Rickie Fowler believes Tiger Woods still has plenty of time left at the top of professional golf, after the 82-time PGA Tour winner’s future was questioned ahead of this week’s Open Championship.

Heading into the final major of the year at Royal Troon, Colin Montgomerie suggested that it could well be time for Woods to call time on his playing career having struggled to replicate the form that made him arguably golf’s greatest ever player in years gone by.

He told The Times: “I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him. There is none of that now. At Pinehurst, he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think ‘What the hell is he doing?’.

“He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there either.” Discussing the potential of Woods retiring once he passes his best, Montgomerie added: “Aren’t we there? I’d have thought we were past there. There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go.

“Obviously, he still feels he can win. We are more realistic.”

One man who believes there is still a place for the 15-time major champion to continue to compete at the highest level though is his fellow countryman Fowler. “He still has plenty of good golf in him,” Fowler told Mirror Sport on the eve of The Open. “The game is better when we have him around.”