Rickie Fowler doesn’t need a win in Texas to book his place in the Masters field but that doesn’t make the Houston Open any less important for the four-time PGA Tour winner.
Fowler moved around in Humble in search of positive vibes in the final tune-up before the year’s first major championship.
After one round, Fowler believes his game is trending in the right direction after he opened with 66 on Thursday to move into contention.
‘Had a couple short ones that we could have got, but all in all, good solid day,’ Fowler said. ‘I like where we’re heading into the next few days and going into the weekend.’
Fowler began his round with three birdies in the first seven holes and added two more after the turn before suffering his first bogey on the par-four 6th — his 15th hole of the day — when his fairway bunker shot hit the bank and rolled into the water.
Fowler managed to get up-and-down for bogey to limit the damage and then reeled off back-to-back birdies to close out his round on a high note.
‘Being in contention and getting yourself in position to win and kind of get the blood flowing, it makes it a lot easier to start things up,’ Fowler said of playing well in Houston the week before the Masters.
The putter was the difference for Fowler, who made 168 feet, 11 inches worth of putts — 51 feet, 7 inches more than his previous-best figure in the category this season — and only recorded one birdie putt shorter than 10 feet.
Ranked 127th this season in strokes gained: putting, Fowler admitted the club has cooled since last season when he finished second in the statistical category. That wasn’t the case on Thursday.
‘Nice to have the putter coming around because it was something that was great last year,’ he said. ‘I feel like it’s always been one of my strongest parts when it gets going, and I’ve had a couple cold months, so heating back up.’
Only one of the six Saffas in the field is set to join Fowler at The Masters and was perfectly on track to post a solid opening round but for one hole.
At first glance, Dylan Frittelli’s 71 looks innocuous but the former Texas University player had 17 perfectly executed holes with only the 11th proving his downfall. Frittelli found the water from the greenside bunker with his third and would post a triple-bogey 7; birdies at the 13th, 15th and 17th would get him under par but leave him with work to do to advance to the weekend.
Frittelli’s -1 is one back of Retief Goosen, Dawie van der Walt and Ernie Els with Rory Sabbatini leading the way at -3 with a few holes left to complete. Tyrone van Aswegen was level for his efforts on Thursday.
Credit: PGA TOUR
