PGA Tour fan favorite Rickie Fowler off to record-setting start at US Open
LOS ANGELES — There would be few more welcome renaissances in golf than seeing Rickie Fowler not only come all the way back from his personal golf abyss, but become even better than he was when he was at his best.
To start Day 1 of the 123rd US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, no one was better than Fowler, who scalded the North Course with a record-setting 8-under 62 — which fellow California native Xander Schauffele soon matched.
The 34-year-old Fowler, who grew up about 100 miles south of LACC in Murrieta, Calif., showed the kind of form on Thursday that a few years ago led you to believe he was going to win multiple major championships.
Fowler, in 2014, finished in the top five in all four majors, the first player to do that since Tiger Woods had done it nine years earlier. From 2013 through the 2015 Masters, Fowler was 16-under par in the majors, the best of any player in that span.
Life on the golf course hasn’t been as smooth for him since, though, with Fowler’s world ranking plummeting and, along with it, his exempt status into some of the major championships disappearing.
Before this week, Fowler hadn’t played a US Open since 2020, the same year he played his most recent Masters. A year ago at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., he was the first alternate to get into the US Open but was left at the altar when no one withdrew.
“It’s nice to be actually out on course,’’ Fowler said on Thursday after carding 10 birdies and two bogeys in his record-setting round.
Before his 62, no player had ever scored as low in a US Open, and then less than 20 minutes after Fowler completed his round, Schauffele matched him with a 62 of his own.
No matter for Fowler, who’s simply happy to have returned to relevance on the golf course, a place he may have taken for granted for so long before he lost his game and watched his world ranking drop to as low as 173rd a year ago.
Along the way as he’s tried to climb back up the ladder in the rankings, Fowler has changed swing coaches and anything else he could shake up.
He’s back with Butch Harmon, the venerable swing coach who helped Woods and Phil Mickelson win major championships.
“It’s definitely been long and tough,’’ Fowler conceded when asked about his journey back. “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.
“I would say we’re starting to get maybe as close as we’ve ever been to where I was through kind of that ’14, ’15 area. This week off to a good start, but there’s still plenty of golf to be played. It’s going to be tough [Friday] afternoon, but at least got out of the gate and we’re off to a good start.’’
Fowler’s fellow players noticed that 62 and the result was universally met with goodwill. Fowler is not only among the most popular players for the fans, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one of his fellow players who has a bad word to say about him.
“Rick’s awesome,’’ Schauffele said. “He’s truly probably one of the nicest guys out here. I couldn’t be happier for him to see him in good form.’’
In his search to regain his form, Fowler worked with Harmon, then the two split and he went to John Tillery for three years and he returned to Harmon in September.
He, too, split with his longtime caddie, Joe Skovron, and replaced him with Ricky Romano.
On Thursday, he credited Harmon for more than just helping his swing.
“Butch has been around and seen a lot and been around so many great players,’’ Fowler said. “He’s coached so many guys to reach, I would say, their potential. A lot of them are very different.
“I feel like he’s a very good golf and life coach.’’
It seems Harmon has helped Fowler with his ball striking. Fowler has improved 143 spots in Strokes Gained: Approach, going from 150th to seventh.
He’s up to 31st this year in greens in regulation percentage. He already has more rounds hitting 13 or more greens (28) and 15 or more greens (10) than he did all of last season.
Thursday’s round came as a bit of surprise to Fowler based on the way he’d been feeling in the practice rounds this week, and even in his warm-up Thursday morning.
“The first few days this week I wasn’t feeling very comfortable swinging and wasn’t making many putts or hitting very good putts,’’ he said. “So, [I] continued to get work in on the course as well as in the practice area, and finally a couple things clicked a bit [Wednesday].
“Then it was more just go out, trust it, and let things happen.’’
