Rickie

Fowler

Fowler gave plenty of hints that a win was on the way. He arrived with top 15s in eight of his previous nine starts. “It’s just nice to have this one out of the way. I’m obviously going to soak this one in and celebrate a bit. Yeah, it’s just been a long road.” This will go in the books as his sixth win on the PGA Tour but first since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. He had fallen outside of the top 150 in the OWGR during the slump but now finds himself at 23rd in the world. “You never really know with this game. You definitely learn to appreciate the good times and when you’re playing well. Yeah, you hope the struggles don’t last, but sometimes they last longer than you would hope for.”

Fowler was off from the get-go, particularly with the irons. He landed fewer GIR (9) than fairways (10). He walked off the course losing 2.98 strokes on approach today. “I just didn’t have it today. Iron play was very below average and didn’t make anything. That’s a big thing in majors, especially on a Sunday. Making putts and kind of keeping it fairly stress-free. It was kind of the opposite. I was kind of fighting through it all day.” Fowler is now 2-for-10 in converting 54-hole leads/co-leads into wins. While it wasn’t the ideal finish for Fowler, he still left with a positive mindset, “As much as it sucks to not be in the position I wanted to be after today, we’re just continuing to build and continuing to move forward.”

Fowler made history on day one when he became the first golfer to record a ’62' in U.S. Open history. He went out in tougher afternoon conditions on Friday but got straight to work with three straight birdies to start his round. He cooled his pace from there but still managed to shoot 4.94 shots better than his wave average today. “We’re in a great position, and like I said, having a lead right now doesn’t really mean much. A little different once you get to after 54 holes because that’s when things really heat up.” This will be Fowler’s 12th time holding a 36-hole lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR. He’s searching for his first win in a major championship and first win since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open.

The California native could do no wrong today as he piped 10-of-13 fairways, gained 3.1 strokes on approach, and 4.5 strokes putting. “The first few days this week I wasn’t feeling very comfortable swinging and wasn’t making many putts or hitting very good putts, so continue to get work in on the course as well as in the practice area, and finally a couple things clicked a bit yesterday. Then it was more just go out, trust it, and let things happen.” This round will go in the history books as the first ’62' recorded in U.S. Open history (he was matched shortly after by Xander Schauffele). It will be his eighth time posting a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR and second time doing that in a major (2017 U.S. Open/T5 finish).

Fowler’s course management and short game was on full display today as he gained 2.1 strokes around-the-green. That was the story of his week as he gained at least one stroke in that department each round at Colonial Country Club. His recent track record at the course was spotty (missed cuts in three of his last five tries and a T57 in one of the others) but he flipped that script this week. Coming up next, he’ll turn his attention toward Muirfield Village where he’s bagged top 25s in five of his last seven starts at the course. Fowler continues to trend toward a return to the winner’s circle.

Fowler missed out on the Masters for a second year in a row but he won’t be missing many more if he keeps playing at the level we’ve seen in 2023. He arrives with top 20s in six of his last seven stroke-play events. “It’s definitely been a bit more consistent. Feel like it’s been weeks where I’ve been able to rely on maybe one or two parts of the game. Really haven’t had everything yet, but I’d say the state that I feel like I’m at in the last few years, that would be a missed cut or finishing in the back of the pack and now being able to manage and keep things moving forward, build momentum, that’s turning those weeks into top-20s and top-10s.” Fowler is sitting around +4000 on the outright betting board.

Fowler was in need of a win this week if he wanted to play his way into next week’s Masters. He didn’t accomplish that goal but continued to build momentum. He now has top 20s in five of his last six stroke-play events. This is now his third top 20 in four tries at the Valero Texas Open.

Rahm built an early 2UP thru 3 lead and traded birdies at 5 and 6 to maintain the lead. He fell flat from there with three bogeys on his next nine holes. “Very uncharacteristic from Jon. I know he didn’t play very well today and struggled on the greens a bit. Other than the first hole, I just did a really good job of keeping it stress-free and making some birdies, lots of pars. It wasn’t exactly easy out there today, but yeah, just got fortunate to kind of turn it around, get in control of the match there on the back nine, and just kind of kept the throttle down.” Arriving at 59th in the OWGR, Fowler will need to reach the quarterfinals to have a chance of squeezing into the Top 50 OWGR to earn a spot at the Masters.

Fowler has been trending with top 20s five of his last eight starts. He stayed hot today but didn’t feel comfortable. “Struggling off the tee. Haven’t felt comfortable with driver. Just kind of accepted what I had, didn’t try and force anything or try and hit shots that I was struggling to hit. Kind of went down to kind of a teed-down, choked-down driver and just try and get it in play. I hit a couple out to the right early in the round and, yeah, just kind of played with what we had.” It’s always nice to beat the field average by 4.18 strokes and even better to accomplish that without your best stuff. He’ll try to dial in the driver before Friday’s morning round which may take place in tougher weather conditions.

Fowler started the day with a one-shot lead as he looked to close out his first win on Tour since 2019, but the ease with which he moved around Narashino CC over the first three days wasn’t evident in the final round. He bogeyed his third hole and made just one birdie over his final 17 holes, adding another circle on No. 18 that merely trimmed the final deficit from two shots to one as Fowler finished behind Keegan Bradley and shared runner-up honors with Andrew Putnam. “I hit some darn good putts,” Fowler said. “It felt like there was a cover over the hole.” It’s Fowler’s 15th career runner-up and he fell to just 2 of 9 when trying to convert a 54-hole lead on Tour. While Fowler described the result as “kind of bittersweet,” it still marked his best result since a T-2 finish at the 2019 Honda Classic. After struggling through two lean years, Fowler has now sandwiched a pair of top-10s in his first three starts of the new wraparound season after a T-6 finish at last month’s Fortinet Championship.