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
