Rickie Fowler made a stunning return to the US Open on Thursday, his record-setting eight-under-par 62 a further sign that he's emerged from the slump that saw him miss the past two editions of the event.
Once ranked fourth in the world and tipped as a multiple major winner, he had fallen to 185th after missing 18 cuts in 28 events in 2021 and 2022.
"It's definitely been long and tough," said Fowler, who won the last of his five US PGA Tour titles at the Phoenix Open in 2019.
"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."
Fowler has climbed back to 45th in the world on the strength of six top-10 finishes this season. That includes a runner-up finish in the Zozo Championship last October as well as a tie for sixth at Colonial and a tie for ninth at the Memorial.
He said he feels he's finally getting back to his strong form of 2014 and '15, with a key difference from the past two years his ability to post a score and make the cut even when he's not playing his best.
"The last few years, those were missed cuts and going home," Fowler said.
Now 34, Fowler burst onto the pro scene in 2009, fans drawn by his game as well as his signature orange outfits and flat-bill caps.
Fowler finished in the top five in all four majors in 2014 and owns eight top-five finishes in major championships in his career.
But the dramatic drop-off in his game in 2021 and 2022 raised the question of whether his window to actually win one had closed.
Fowler's first round at Los Angeles Country Club seemed to throw that window wide open.
Fowler had 10 birdies, including one stretch of four straight. He drained five birdie putts from outside 10 feet, and was consistently able to get himself out of trouble -- as he did in making birdie from a barranca alongside the fairway at eight.
"It was a great day," Fowler said. "Got off to a nice start making three on 10 and just never really thought about a score or necessarily what I was trying to do out there,” Fowler said.
A stunner by major championship standards, Fowler's score set a record for any round recorded at a US Open, surpassing the 63 first set by Johnny Miller in 1973 that had since been matched five times.
Less than half an hour later, however, Xander Schauffele matched his score and Fowler, who has had runner-up finishes in the US Open, British Open and Masters and tied for third in the PGA Championship, said it was way too soon to be thinking about a trophy.
"It's going to be tough tomorrow afternoon," Fowler said. "But at least got out of the gate and we're off to a good start."
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