Before Thursday, only one round of 62 had ever been recorded in a major championship, and never at the U.S. Open.
Just halfway through the first round of the 123rd U.S. Open, two 62s were already on the board.
Rickie Fowler rang up 10 birdies en route to the first 62 in U.S. Open history Thursday afternoon, and Xander Schauffele finished up about 20 minutes later with a bogey-free 62 to match him.
Fowler and Schauffele went 8-under par at the par-70 Los Angeles Country Club, which is hosting a major for the first time. They were five clear of the field, with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau among a group at 3 under.
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.
Both players are California natives in search of the first major titles of their careers.
Fowler made 10 of 13 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in regulation. Most important, he led the field with 4.73 strokes gained putting.
“I knew it was close. I wasn’t sure of the exact number,” Fowler said of the record on the TV broadcast. “I was really just trying to keep moving forward. Made a lot of good swings. Been a while since I’ve made some mid-range putts, so it was nice to make a lot of those.”
Fowler teed off on No. 10 in the morning wave and played his first nine 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. And 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. The resulting birdies pushed him ahead of the pack by multiple shots.
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.
He two-putted the par-3 ninth hole to conclude his historic round.
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 secure the 62.
–Field Level Media
