Rickie Fowler Fires 65, Leads U.S. Open After Round One
Scores on day one at the U.S. Open were lower than expected.
Heading into the first-round of the U.S. Open one talking point was the incredible fescue just feet from the fairways. The other topic of discussion was who the favorite this week was and Rickie Fowler’s name was among those mentioned. He backed that up with a spicy, bogey-free 65 on Thursday.
His round of -7 tied the U.S. Open record for the lowest score during the opening 18 in relation to par.
The 28-year-old wasn’t the lone competitor to take it low on Thursday however. Fowler leads Paul Casey and Xander Schauffele by only one stroke heading into moving day.
Fowler, who teed off on 10, got off to a quick start with birdies on his first five holes and that certainly got things going for the world’s №9 golfer. Casey too got off to a wicked start by eagling the Par 5 first and followed that up with a birdie on the short Par 4 second.
Meanwhile, while all of this was going on, the blimp flying high over the course actually crashed. Plus, Paul Azinger and his fellow announcers didn’t let it go unnoticed about the number of guys complaining about course conditions and zoning in on the low numbers saying of course the track wasn’t as tough as conceived. After all, there were 44 scores under par on Thursday.
News flash, the pins tomorrow and Sunday are going to be absolutely wicked.
As for other notables, Brooks Koepka is just two shots off the lead after firing a 67 while Patrick Reed was one shot worse carding a 68. Brandt Snedeker and Masters champion Sergio Garcia are tied at 18th with rounds of 70.
Other big-time players struggled mightily on the Wisconsin track. Dustin Johnson shot +3 that featured a double bogey and just one birdie. Jason Day, another favorite heading into the week, couldn’t get anything going and shot a 79 putting him in a tie for 121st.
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