Rickie Fowler has been flirting with the end of a four-year drought over the past five weeks, but he’s come up just short every time.

Fowler hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2019. However, he finds himself 18 holes away from breaking out of his rut after firing an 8-under 64 on Saturday to jump into the lead after three rounds at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.

As he attempts to move toward his first victory since the 2019 Phoenix Open, Fowler racked up nine birdies against just one bogey to move to 20-under 196 for the tournament. He holds a one-stroke lead over Canadian Adam Hadwin, who carded the low round of the day with a 63 at Detroit Golf Club.

Hadwin’s 63 also matched a course record.

The past month has tested Fowler, who finished tied for ninth at the Memorial before tying for fifth at the U.S. Open on June 18. Those results came after a T6 at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the end of May.

In his most recent outing, Fowler tied for 13th at the Travelers Championship last Sunday.

“I felt really good Sunday last week and just didn’t get anything going, didn’t get anything out of it,” Fowler said. “Sunday at the U.S. Open, timing got a little off, I wasn’t hitting my irons as kind of tight and on my numbers as I had been all week, didn’t make much on top of that.

“Big thing is just kind of staying in my timing and rhythm and tempo. I’m still going to have to play some solid golf (Sunday) because there’s plenty of guys right behind me. It’s not like I have an eight-shot lead or anything like that where I can just go cruise.”

After tallying a bogey on the par-4 10th, Fowler cruised to the finish line, going for birdie on six of his last eight holes to gain the edge on Hadwin. But Hadwin stayed close thanks in large part to an eagle on the par-5 14th, one of the many highlights during his bogey-free round.

Winning hasn’t come easy for Hadwin either, as his last — and only — victory on Tour came at the Valspar Championship in 2017.

“I feel like I’m a completely different player than I was back then. I’ve gone through a couple different swing instructors and trying to do different things with my swing and the golf ball,” Hadwin said. “But certainly the mindset that I had and the patience that I had I can definitely look back to that and carry that through to (Sunday).”

Canada’s Taylor Pendrith, who held a share of the lead after 36 holes, fell into third with Saturday’s 67, two shots off the lead. Pendrith’s second-round co-leader, Taylor Moore, fared even worse, recording a 69 that dropped him into a tie for sixth at 16 under.

“Didn’t hit my driver as well as I had the first two days so wasn’t able to get close to some of the pins, but overall, yeah, I’m right there,” Pendrith said. “I think the weather’s not going to be great (Sunday), so got to go out and try to make more birdies.”

Peter Kuest (65 on Saturday) and Englishman Aaron Rai (66) sit in a tie for fourth, while China’s Carl Yuan (64), Dylan Wu (66), Collin Morikawa (67) and Justin Lower (67) joined Moore in sixth.

–Field Level Media

Taylor Moore retained a share of the lead at the Rocket Mortgage Classic with a tightly packed crowd on his heels at Detroit Golf Club.

Canada’s Taylor Pendrith shot a second-round 64 to pull even with Moore on Friday afternoon in a redemption run at the event following a runner-up finish in 2022.

Moore and Pendrith are 13-under after 36 holes and first-round co-leader, qualifier Peter Kuest, kept himself in contention but dropped to a tie for ninth with a bogey on his final hole (No. 9) Friday at 9-under for the tournament.

“You’ve got to keep making birdies, or you’re going to get lapped out there,” Pendrith said. “I’ve got to take care of the par-5s a little bit better. They’re all super gettable.”

Moore, who finished sixth in Detroit in 2022, bogeyed a pair of par-4s (No. 8, 16) but hit the clubhouse with a second-round 67 and the outright lead only to watch the afternoon wave turn into a mad surge from Pendrith, Rickie Fowler and Justin Lower.

“I really haven’t felt like I’ve been that far off and haven’t made a cut in a couple weeks,” said Moore of his first lead or co-lead through 36 holes.

Starting on the back nine Friday, Pendrith was 10-under for the tournament through nine holes and consistently climbed closer to Moore. Standing 14th through 18 holes Thursday, Pendrith made consecutive birdies on the third and fourth holes to pull even at 13-under and forward his strong play in Detroit. He was 21-under in 2022 and now has five rounds of 66 or better in his past six at Detroit Golf Club.

“The experience I had last year, coming so close,” Pendrith said of repeating the 36-hole lead in Detroit. “To be right back in position with a chance coming into Saturday, it would be unreal, it would be amazing (to get his first career Tour win).”

Fowler carded a 65 on Friday to settle into a third-place tie, one clear of Lower, Collin Morikawa and others tied for fifth at 11-under. He’s chasing his first victory since 2019 but said he knows he can win.

“How I’ve played is some of the best, if not the best, I’ve felt about my game and on the course really ever,” Fowler said.

Lower jumped 20 spots during Friday’s bogey-free 18 thanks to a 32 on his first nine on the way to a 65.

Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (67 Friday) rolled in birdies on 16 and 17 to grab a share of third place

Fowler climbed to within one shot of the lead with a 26-foot chip from just off the green for eagle at No. 17, erasing a bogey on the previous that ended a stretch of three birdies in four holes. He’s 12-under entering the third round.

American Andrew Landry jumped 74 spots on Day 2 with the Friday’s low round, tying the course record of 63 and settling at 9-under for the round. He’s tied with Kuest, Dylan Wu (69), Britain’s Cam Davis, who shot a 7-under 65 Friday, Canadian Adam Hadwin (68) and Austrian Sepp Straka (66). Straka shot 33 on both sides in the second round with seven birdies.

Defending champion Tony Finau missed the cut and was 1-under for the tournament. Sam Bennett tumbled from third place with two double-bogeys, was 83rd and on the wrong side of cut line when he teed off on the par-4, 18th following a bogey at 16.

But he birdied to sneak into the weekend.

–Field Level Media

Luke List withdrew from the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit prior to Friday’s second round due to a foot injury.

List recorded a 2-over-par 72 on Thursday during the first round at Detroit Golf Club. He sat eight strokes back of qualifier Peter Kuest and Taylor Moore, who each carded an 8-under to share the lead.

List, 38, has just one career win since joining the PGA Tour in 2013. He captured the Farmers Insurance Open in January 2022 after defeating Will Zalatoris in the first hole of a playoff at the Torrey Pines South Course in San Diego.

–Field Level Media

Qualifier Peter Kuest carded an 8-under par round of 64 on Thursday to share the lead with Taylor Moore after the first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

It appeared Kuest would hold the outright lead, but Moore poured in his fourth birdie in a five-hole stretch on No. 17 to pull even. Moore’s birdie attempt on No. 18, which would have tied the course record, slid just right of the cup.

Scoring was low at Detroit Golf Club, but nobody went lower than Moore and Kuest, who had to play his way into the field on Monday.

Kuest offset a lone bogey with nine birdies, including going out in 6-under 30 on the front nine. He attempts to become the first Monday qualifier to win on the PGA Tour since Corey Conners at the 2021 Valero Texas Open.

“It feels good. We’ve got another round tomorrow so we’re going to get ready for that and then just take it one step at a time,” said Kuest, who added that he probably would have been fishing back home in Utah on Thursday had he not made it through the Monday qualifier.

Kuest is ranked 789th in the Official World Golf Ranking and while he holds Korn Ferry Tour status, he hasn’t gotten into an event yet. So he has been hammering on the Monday Qualifiers, in addition to posting a T14 on a sponsors exemption at the Byron Nelson in June.

Kuest was 1 over through three holes in the Monday Qualifier, but birdied seven of his final 15 to get into a 4-for-3 playoff. He then got into the field when it was discovered that another player had 15 clubs in his bag.

“It’s just a fun ride learning every week,” Kuest said.

Meanwhile, Moore came within inches of tying the course record Thursday – an unpredictable round as this year’s Valspar Championship winner entered the week having missed his past three cuts.

With the current state of my game I’ve kind of been stuck in neutral, so this has been really good for me to see,” said Moore, who finished sixth in Detroit last year.

The group of seven players at 7 under includes rookie Ludvig Aberg, who reached 9 under while playing in the morning wave, only to close his round with a pair of bogeys. Also at 7 under is fellow rookie Sam Bennett and Dylan Wu, who carded a pair of eagles during his round. Wu’s birdie attempt to tie for the lead slid left of the cup on his final hole.

Aberg carded his third 65 in his past four rounds, and became the first player to hit every fairway and hit at least 17 greens in a single round on the PGA Tour since Jon Rahm in the opening round of this year’s Masters. Of his 14 drives, 11 traveled more than 310 yards.

“Driver is one of my favorite clubs and I like hitting it,” Aberg said. “Obviously, you’re not going to hit the fairway every time, but hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up the next couple of days as well.”

Collin Morikawa, trying to win in a tournament debut for the fifth time in his career, is another shot back at 6 under. Rickie Fowler, who reached 7 under during his morning round, also bogeyed his final two holes to drop back to 5 under.

“To be perfectly honest, I had to go to the bathroom pretty badly, so luckily I just got drug tested so I went straight in,” Fowler said when asked if he went straight to the range to practice. “There weren’t many bathrooms the last five holes, so I was a little shaky coming in. And not to necessarily blame the finish on that, but it didn’t help.”

Defending champion Tony Finau struggled to an even-par round of 72 with four pars and four bogeys.

That was still significantly better than two of the biggest names in the field.

Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama is tied for 147th after opening with a 3-over 75. That was one shot better than playing partner Justin Thomas, who finished Thursday better than only three in the 156-player field.

Thomas added the event to his schedule last month as he tries to secure a spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs – he’s currently No. 66 in the standings and only the top 70 qualify for the first leg of the playoffs. After a promising T9 last week, Thomas opened with a birdie on Thursday, only to go 4 over in his final 14 holes.

–Field Level Media