The green and gold bag was a sleight of hand, a trick to win over the fans. In these parts, the Green Bay Packers are more than a religion.
The ploy succeeded, and as Rickie Fowler was adopted by the galleries as if one of their own, he also let his clubs do their own talking with a marvellous opening round 65, seven-under-par, that saw him sprint off the starting blocks in this opening round of the US Open.
The past six Major championships – going back to Jason Day’s win in the 2015 US PGA – have been claimed by first-time winners. The most recent was Sergio Garcia at the Masters. And all of that has only meant that the tag of best-player-never-to-win-a-Major has fallen onto the shoulders of Fowler.
A compliment or a burden?
“I take it as a compliment, there are a lot of really good players out here that haven’t won a Major. It would be nice to get rid of that tag at some point. I’m not saying that this is the week or isn’t the week, but I like the way this golf course suits me and we’re off to a good start. There’s definitely a lot of golf to be played,” said Fowler.
The opening shots in that quest for a breakthrough Major were accurate and unerring. In finding 12 of 14 fairways and hitting 15 of 18 greens-in-regulation, Fowler played stress-free golf.
Three birdies in his opening five holes simply set the mood for his round, where he took advantage of the Par 5s to claim the clubhouse lead.
Fowler – a distant runner-up behind Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst in 2014 – is only too well aware that there is, as he put it, “a lot of golf” left to be played. At least he got the first part of the task accomplished.
“It’s just nice to go out and actually execute the game plan and not have to think about, ‘what if that one went in’ or anything like that. Your’re going to miss putts. You’re not going to make everything.
“I feel like I have great control of the ball right now and distance control, I feel like I’m better throughout my whole game. I’ve been able to tighten things up. I used to not be a very good bunker player, and now I feel like I have a lot of confidence, and stats show I’m one of the best.
“That’s definitely been something that’s been nice to have on days where you’re not exactly on and just understanding and freeing yourself up because you know if you might miss something, okay, I’ll just get it up-and-down,” said Fowler, winner of the Honda Classic earlier in the season and runner-up in The Memorial two weeks ago.
Of the first wave of players, Fowler’s 65 gave him a two-shot lead over Brooks Koepka, Brian Harman and Tommy Fleetwood.
