PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA | One soft, gray Thursday at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach is a long, long way from Sunday afternoon but Rickie Fowler is teasing us again.
Not just with his haircut, which is conjuring up memories of Billy Ray Cyrus with this modern mullet, but with the idea of Fowler winning a major championship.
If Tiger Woods winning the Masters and Brooks Koepka strong-arming another PGA Championship were sledgehammer storylines to the year’s first two majors, Fowler finding a way to hook the U.S. Open amid the sea spray and scenery along this captivating patch of Pacific coastline could be golf’s version of an Avengers movie at the box office.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves – that’s for talk radio – but we’ve been here before. Fowler is no stranger to major championship leaderboards, having put together 10 top-10 finishes in his career. It’s tempting to call it a still-young career but Fowler is in his 10th full season and here’s the shocker – he’s now 30 years old.
Fowler seems perpetually young and probably will for an uncommonly long time. It’s his look and his nature, and all the things you’ve probably heard or read about him being one of the nicest people in professional golf are true.
That’s one of the reasons his presence atop the U.S. Open leaderboard after a stress-free 66 at benign Pebble Beach sparked a flutter of anticipation. It’s the missing piece, the pot of gold, the unfulfilled dream – pick any bit of hyperbole you prefer – on his résumé.
Just don’t think it’s keeping him up all night.
Golfers are habitual nitpickers, finding something they could have improved upon even on their best days. That was hard for Fowler on Thursday.
“Whether I win a major or I don’t in my career, it’s not something that’s going to define me. There’s a lot of other things that I’d love to be remembered by, work off the golf course and making a difference and changing people’s lives. It would be nice to have a major on the résumé. We’ll see what we can do,” Fowler said.
See, he’s just so … nice.
Don’t confuse that with him not having the fire to win. It’s in there even as he’s answered the inevitable question about now owning the label of best player without a major championship.
“It’s a compliment in a way,” Fowler said earlier this week. “Obviously there’s a lot of great players that haven’t won a major. It’s not necessarily something I think about or worry about. I know that when the time is right, it’s going to happen.”
Fowler made playing Pebble Beach look simple Thursday. He hit 13 of 14 fairways and missed just three greens, avoiding the rough and taking full advantage of a soft day, particularly by U.S. Open standards.
Golfers are habitual nitpickers, finding something they could have improved upon even on their best days. That was hard for Fowler on Thursday.
“It was the worst I could have shot,” Fowler said of his 66.
Not to tempt the karma gods, Fowler made an appropriate point.
“You never feel just in cruise control at a major, and especially a U.S. Open,” he said.
If you’re wondering about the haircut, well, blame it on Jason Dufner. The two of them were talking about haircuts and noticed how hockey and lacrosse players tend to have plenty of hair. It became a challenge to grow a mullet and, in the process, help their foundations.
As for being style setters, that’s not the idea.
“We’re just having a good time with it and not necessarily trying to look good,” Fowler said.
Rickie Fowler hits his approach on the ninth hole in the first round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Photo: Rob Schumacher, USA Today Sports
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