Fowler erases early miscue; late wobble strikes McIlroy
Timing is everything, as the saying goes.
Rickie Fowler and his playing partner, Rory McIlroy, each suffered through holes Thursday at the PGA Championship they’d rather forget. But while McIlroy’s morale-crushing double bogey late in his first round proved too much to overcome, Fowler’s triple-bogey seven on his fifth hole left him time to recover.
And that’s exactly what he did. “I knew I still had three par-5s ahead of me,” said Fowler after his 2-under 69 left him tied for eighth heading into Friday’s second round. “I told myself to accept it and move on.”
Outside of McIlroy, there’s no player with a greater affinity for the course than Fowler.
When he made his first appear- ance here in 2010, Fowler spoke glowingly of the course. It fit his game, he said, and the layout was fun to play. He finished sixth that year and tied for 16th in 2011, before firing rounds of 66 and 67 at the course to capture his first PGA Tour win in 2012.
Fowler has since cemented his status among the game’s elite, and coming into the PGA Championship’s final three rounds, he’ll have a chance to capture his first major on the course that kickstarted it all.
Ahead of this year’s tournament, Quail Hollow removed about 800 trees and stretched the par-71 course to more than 7,600 yards. “It’s a bomber’s paradise,” said Tommy Fleetwood, who opened with a 1-under 70. “If you can hit your driver well, it’s a real advantage.”
Fowler came into the week ranked 11th in strokes gained teeto-green, boasting the highest driving accuracy of his career, thanks to a midseason switch to a shorter-length driver. Fowler ranks fourth on the PGA Tour in birdie average, with a lower scoring average than all but Jordan Spieth. Ultimately, it’s what saved his round Thursday.
Birdies on the third and fourth preceded an uncharacteristic error on the fifth hole, where Fowler’s errant drive found a fairway bunker to the right. “It was a little mental mistake,” he said. “I forgot a swing cue I usually think of and missed the drive.”
Fowler found the green in two on the par-5 seventh, then holed a 12-foot birdie on the ninth to make the turn at 1 under.
If he walks away with the trophy this week, he’ll need to avoid the bad holes or make them early enough to overcome.
“It would be nice not to have it,” said Fowler of his triple. “But (if ) you have something happen early, it gives you more time to make up for it. With Rory having a rough hole later in the round, it’s kind of a shot in the gut.”