Connect with us

Golf

Rickie Fowler Five Back at PGA Championship After Round 2

Published

on

Rickie Fowler’s PGA Championship was treading water on Friday afternoon. He was 1 over on the day and 1 under for the tournament going into the final two holes at Baltusrol on Friday afternoon both of which are par 5s. The leaders were separating themselves, and Fowler knew he needed to do something special at the end.

He did.

Fowler went birdie-eagle to flip his round on its head, get to 4 under on the tournament and play his way into the afternoon pairings on Saturday after a pair of 68s to open his tournament. He’s just five strokes back of leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb with six golfers between him and those two leaders.

It’s been a tough slog for Fowler at the majors this year. He missed the cut at the Masters and U.S. Open and was a non-factor at The Open Championship. His play this week has been on point though.

To this point, Fowler is doing it with his driver and iron play. He’s 61st in the field in strokes gained putting but seventh in strokes gained tee to green. That’s mostly how Fowler’s year has gone. He’s hit it great and putted pretty averagely. Although he admitted at the U.S. Open that he has let his putting struggles affect his swing. At a course like Baltusrol you have to be on your game with the driver, and Fowler has been.

“If you are not driving the ball well, it’s going to be hard to score,” said Fowler. “You have got to be playing out of the fairway. The rough is spotty, you can end up with some pretty bad lies, end up with some that are okay. Even so right now it’s starting to firm up a bit. If you are not playing from the fairways, tough to get the ball on the green.”

So now maybe Fowler can turn the tide on what has been a relatively disappointing season. He has fallen outside the automatic qualifiers for the Ryder Cup team and hasn’t won in the United States in a year. He feels the chatter too. Knows the pressure is there for him to perform.

“Definitely not where I wanted to be [this year], especially after winning early in the year [on the European Tour],” said Fowler. “You don’t have to sugar coat it, it wasn’t very good. Missing cuts is not fun and definitely not what’s planned. It’s heading in the right direction. It’s just … fundamentals. Everything is so small. But the thing is, out here the highest level, if you are off just a little bit, I mean, especially in a major, it picks you a part and it shows.”

The only thing that has showed on Thursday and Friday is that Fowler has a little bit of his groove back. Maybe that translates into major No. 1. If that’s the case, he’ll have to overcome a pretty tasty leaderboard to nab it.

Fowler will tee off at 2:05 ET with Jamie Donaldson on Saturday afternoon.

Most Read

Copyright © 2011- 2023 White Maple Media