Rickie Fowler is looking forward to resuming his rivalry with Rory McIlroy and expects the two to have many "heated battles" throughout their careers.

World number one McIlroy pipped his American counterpart, who is only six months his senior, to two Major titles and beat him in the Ryder Cup singles last year.

Fowler expects them to have more titanic tussles in 2015 as a crop of talented and exciting youngsters threaten to stamp their authority on the game.

"Rory is the best player in the world right now, he proved that last year," Fowler told a Wednesday press conference.

"I am definitely looking forward to 2015, having some great match-ups with him and some of the other great young players. With Patrick Reed winning last week and Jordan Spieth winning twice at the end of last year, it looks like there could be a lot of fun.

"It's not just 2015 to look forward to but the rest of our careers. We have a lot of time that we are going to be able to play against each other. This is really just the start of it. I feel like we are going to have some fun and heated battles at times."

Fowler became only the third player to secure top-five finishes in all of the year's Majors during 2014.