This one is going to sting for Rickie Fowler. The fan favorite and one of the top candidates to be dubbed the Best Player To Never Win A Major let his weekend in San Francisco slip away with one putt that, well, slipped away.
Fowler opened the PGA Championship with a three-over 73 on Thursday at TPC Harding Park, but he was trending in a better direction Friday. Fowler started on the back nine and birdied the first two holes of the day, turning in three-under 32. He made another birdie on the 1st to get to four under on the day (and one under for the tournament), but he ran into trouble on the par-4 6th.
After missing the fairway and then missing the green, Fowler had nine feet for his par. He thought he hit a good putt but it didn’t fall, leaving him six inches for a tap-in bogey. Or so he thought.
Hovering over the ball with his weight on his right foot, Fowler seemed to lose his balance as he made his stroke. His putter hit the ground and then barely tapped the ball, causing it to move less than an inch. He looked stunned, then cleaned it up for a double bogey.
Fowler’s double pushed him back to one over for the tournament, and he then went par-bogey-par to close out his round. He shot a one-under 69 and finished two over overall, but the cut line turned out to be one over.
That extra stroke cost Fowler dearly. It was just his second missed cut in 11 PGA Championship appearances.
Josh Berhow
Golf.com Editor
As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.
