The U.S. Open is widely viewed as the most difficult of the four men’s major championships, but with soft conditions at a little-known venue, Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele made their opening rounds look like child’s play.
Fowler rang up a record 10 birdies en route to the first round of 62 in U.S. Open history, and Schauffele finished up a bogey-free 62 about 20 minutes later to match him Thursday at the Los Angeles Country Club.
Fowler and Schauffele went 8-under par at the LACC’s par-70 North Course, which is hosting a major for the first time.
“It’s not really what you expect playing a U.S. Open,” Schauffele said. “But monkey see, monkey do. Was just chasing Rickie up the leaderboard.”
South African Branden Grace was previously the only player to card a 62 at a major, accomplished in the third round of the 2017 Open Championship.
Six players had shot a round of 63 in the U.S. Open’s 123-year history: Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Vijay Singh of Fiji, Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood of England.
After the morning wave, Fowler and Schauffele were five shots clear of the field, with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau among a group at 3 under. That gap was filled during the afternoon when Dustin Johnson and Wyndham Clark shot 6-under 64 and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Brian Harman went 5-under 65.
All told, the field was on pace to smash the record for the lowest first-round scoring average in U.S. Open history. With a few groups left finishing their rounds, the average score stood at 71.34, well south of the previous low mark of 72.29 (1993).
Both Fowler, 34, and Schauffele, 29, are California natives in search of the first major titles of their careers.
Fowler, a longtime fan favorite on the PGA Tour, is playing his first U.S. Open since 2020 after failing two qualify for two straight years.
“It’s definitely been long and tough. A lot longer being in that situation than you’d ever want to,” Fowler said. “But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now.”
Fowler made 10 of 13 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in regulation. Most importantly, he led the field with 4.77 strokes gained putting.
“The first few days this week I wasn’t feeling very comfortable swinging and wasn’t making many putts or hitting very good putts, so continued to get work in on the course as well as in the practice area, and finally a couple things clicked a bit (Wednesday),” Fowler said. “Then it was more just go out, trust it and let things happen.
“I knew there was birdies to be made out here, but you have to drive it well and get the ball in position first. Yeah, did that, and from there just managed our way around really well.”
In six U.S. Open starts, Schauffele has finished in the top 15 all six times, with five top-10s and three top-fives.
“I had a pretty good flow throughout the round,” Schauffele said on the TV broadcast. “I was looking at Rickie up on the board all day — every time I made a birdie, it just said I was still in second place. So I just felt like if he was doing it, why can’t I?”
Fowler teed off on the back nine and played it in 3-under — five birdies, two bogeys. His birdie putt of nearly 16 feet at the 18th hole launched a string of four straight birdies.
At the par-5 first, Fowler’s third shot out of a greenside bunker stopped 5 feet from the pin, and his second shot at the par-4 second nestled to about 2 feet of the cup. At the par-4 third, Fowler’s approach spun back and glanced off the ball of one of his playing partners, stopping 4 feet and change from the pin.
Fowler’s final birdies came at Nos. 6 and 8, the latter a par-5 that saw him in trouble off the tree. His drive landed in a barranca that winds throughout the property, but he blasted out into the fairway, avoiding an overhanging tree, and reached the green in three shots before sinking a 13-foot birdie.
Schauffele also started on the back nine and birdied three of his first five holes. He watched a 17-foot birdie putt at No. 1 roll 360 degrees around the cup before dropping, and he stayed on Fowler’s tail with birdies at Nos. 2, 5 and 7.
Shortly after Fowler signed for his 62, Schauffele made a left-to-right 7-footer at the eighth to tie him at 8 under. He had to save par from about 4 feet out at No. 9 to tie the record.
Johnson, the 2016 U.S. Open champion, was 7 under through his first 17 holes before a wayward tee shot at the par-3 ninth led to his only bogey. Before that, the LIV Golf star made his charge up the leaderboard with five birdies from Nos. 1-8.
“The course isn’t really that gettable, obviously,” Johnson said. “If you play well and hit it in the right spots and you can be aggressive, you get a few wedges in your hand, but you’ve still got to hit a really good golf shot if you want to get it close to the hole. Today obviously with the setup, it was definitely somewhat gettable if you drove it really well.”
Like Johnson, McIlroy was cruising through a bogey-free round until his last hole. He found tall fescue on the side of the 18th green, and the blade of his club went under the ball completely on his first attempt to chip onto the green. He got on with his second try and made an 11-foot putt to save bogey.
Before that, McIlroy made five of his six birdies at Nos. 1-8, just like Johnson. The four-time major winner is trying to prevent his major title drought from reaching 10 years.
Scheffler and DeChambeau were joined at 3-under 67 by Si Woo Kim of South Korea, Paul Barjon of France, Harris English and Sam Bennett. Now a professional, Bennett was the amateur who made a name for himself at the Masters by tying for 16th.
France’s Matthieu Pavon and World No. 15 Sam Burns each made a hole-in-one at the par-3 15th, playing just 124 yards Thursday. Their wedge shots landed just past the cup and back-spun in.
–Field Level Media
