Rickie Fowler continues comeback tour with record-breaking 62 at U.S. Open | D'Angelo
LOS ANGELES — Ricky Romano has seen nearly every shot Rickie Fowler has hit in the past two years. He knows when his guy is striking it and when it's a grind.
Thursday's opening round of the U.S. Open was the former. So when Romano was asked to name Fowler's best shot of the day he paused.
And paused. And could not come up with one, even though there were just 62 of them. And that was a good thing.
Later, even Fowler had to think hard.
"There were a lot, which is a very good thing," he said before coming up with a 5-iron into the 16th green that allowed him to card one of his 10 birdies on the LA Country Club's North Course.
The significance of Fowler's round, other than it continues his comeback tour and comes in a major, is that it was the lowest in U.S. Open history. Fowler held that distinction for all of 20 minutes before Xander Schauffele signed for the same 8-under number giving them the co-lead by two shots entering Round 2. The only other 62 in men's major championship history belongs to Branden Grace in the third round of the 2017 British Open.
"I knew there was birdies to be made out here," Fowler said.
But Fowler, who lives in Jupiter, would not have predicted this early in the week when he said he wasn't feeling very comfortable swinging and hitting very good putts.
And when you are comfortable from tee to green and not putting well, that does not leave much room for optimism.
But something clicked Wednesday. The confidence rose in practice and Fowler decided to trust his swing.
"He's been trending in the right direction," Romano said. "It just all came together today."
That is not something that would have been said about Fowler's game prior to this season.
The last of his five PGA Tour wins was the 2019 Phoenix Open just before his game dropped off a cliff and cratered last September when he sank to No. 185 in the world, his worst ranking in more than 12 years.
For the next three seasons, Fowler entered 60 events and had just four top 10s. He had 10 more missed cuts (24) than top-25 finishes.
Entering this week, Fowler has 12 top-25 finishes and just two missed cuts in 17 starts.
"It's definitely been long and tough," said Fowler, who did not qualify for the last two U.S. Open tournaments. "A lot longer being in that situation than you'd ever want to. But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now."
Longer than he wants to think about. Fowler appeared destined for ever greater heights than he has reached when he stormed onto the tour with his shaggy hair, Vandyke beard and flat-rimmed Puma caps.
In 2014, he became just the third player to place in the top five of the four majors in a single year, joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, who did it twice. Since then, Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka joined the list.
That year he was runner-up at the U.S. Open and British Open, third at the PGA Championship and fifth at the Masters.
Now, nine years later at the age of 34, he's still searching for that elusive major championship.
"Golf is a hard game and sometimes you struggle," said Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 who has made it look pretty easy the past 16 months. "You go through the ebbs and flows of your career, and as long as you keep working hard and keep the faith in yourself, which Rickie has. He's climbed his way all the way back and he's been playing some really solid golf this year."
If he can do that for three more rounds, Fowler's struggles will slip even further into the past.
"There's still plenty of golf to be played," Fowler said. "It's going to be tough tomorrow afternoon. But at least got out of the gate and we're off to, like I said, a good start."
Like the rest of his peers, Fowler followed last week's developments between the tour and the backers of LIV Golf but knows he cannot control that like he can control what is happening on the golf course, especially when nobody knows where this deal is headed.
He used words like "shock" and "disbelief," but just wants the tour to do its research like he did last year when approached by LIV's leaders.
"I wanted to learn about it and at least do my due diligence," he said. "I would say one thing where a lot of us were disappointed with the tour was not at least meeting with the guys at LIV and all the other people involved just to learn about it.
"Even if you think it's a bad idea, same with what's going on right now, even if you think it's a bad idea, you have to learn the ins and outs to make your own personal judgment or decision."
123rd U.S. OPEN
Through Sunday
Los Angeles Country Club
Friday: 1 p.m., USA; 8 p.m., NBC
Saturday: 1 p.m., NBC
Sunday: 1 p.m., NBC
Defending champ: Jupiter's Matt Fitzpatrick
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rickie Fowler shoots 62 at U.S. Open, then is matched by Xander Schauffele
