- Roughly 20 minutes after Rickie Fowler broke a U.S. Open record with an 8-under 62, Xander Schauffele matched Fowler to tie the lowest-round record.
- The records were broken amid complaints from golf fans that the course at Los Angeles Country Club is too easy for the U.S. Open.
- Several golfers were threatening to break Schauffele and Fowler’s record in the later stages of the first round.
Rickie Fowler stood atop the golf world for the first time in years on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the U.S. Open. However, Xander Schauffele joined Fowler shortly after, with an 8-under 62 to match Fowler’s lowest round in the U.S. Open’s 128-year history.
Entering the second round, Schauffele is the new favorite at +350 odds, while Fowler is in the hunt with +675 odds at Bovada.
Fowler has not won a PGA golf tournament in over four years. In 2019, Fowler captured the Waste Management Phoenix Open. After the fifth win of his career, he likely didn’t believe that a multi-year drought would follow.
While it is unknown whether Fowler will stay hot, this was the best round of golf from the Murrieta native in his career. Fowler had +5000 odds to win the U.S. Open before he teed off on the first hole Thursday.
Fowler’s U.S. Open odds to win outright witnessed a massive drop from +5000 to +675. Currently, he has the fourth-best odds to win the U.S. Open at Bovada. If Fowler can get it done, the U.S. Open will be the first major championship win of his career.
As of now, the biggest win of Fowler’s career was at The Players Championship in 2015. He beat Kevin Kisner in a four-hole playoff to win what is unofficially known as the fifth major on the PGA Tour. Despite his record-breaking round, Fowler has a lot of company to contend with this weekend.
Before today, only one man had shot a 62 in a round at a major.
Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele each just shot 62 at the #USOpen within minutes of each other 🤯 pic.twitter.com/7xrklQ1Sc0
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 15, 2023
Schauffele Favored To Win U.S. Open After Catching Fowler
Schauffele, who didn’t grow up far from Fowler in La Jolla, finished strong to reel in Fowler on the back nine. He had a bogey-free round, with eight birdies, including three on the back nine at the Los Angeles Country Club.
The 29-year-old has seven career wins on the PGA Tour, including the Travelers Championship and TOUR Championship. Schauffele’s latest win was the Travelers Championship on June 26, 2022.
Despite seven career wins, and 36 Top 5 performances, Schauffele is still looking for his first major championship. He has been a popular pick to get it done in the past, but has not been able to finish down the stretch.
Currently, Schauffele has the best odds to win the U.S. Open at +350. Last week, he was +2500 to win the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. Schauffele understands that it is early in the tournament, though.
While everyone is excited over what Schauffele accomplished, he is not getting ahead of himself:
“Well, that’s when you’re interviewing my caddie, he’s not used to that kind of stuff, so I was just hearing some weird things. I was like, dude, it’s just Thursday, my man,” Schauffele added, “It’s literally just the first day of the tournament. It’s a good start.”
Fowler and Schauffele were red hot in the first round, but they weren’t the only golfers who came out swinging at Los Angeles Country Club.
LA Country Club No Match For Golfers In First Round
Is this set up just too easy for the U.S. Open? That seems to be the consensus from anyone that watched the first round on Thursday.
Fowler and Schauffele broke a record, but they weren’t the only golfers that tore up the golf course. There were a whopping 37 players that finished above par in the first round.
To put this into context, only nine golfers finished above par at the 2022 U.S. Open in Brookline, Massachusetts, at The Country Club. That is around average for a U.S. Open, but at this current pace, we are going to have a record on Sunday.
Typically, golfers pay for their mistakes badly in the U.S. Open. If they hit a bad tee shot, saving par can be a tall task. However, in the 2023 U.S. Open, players were easily overcoming obstacles to finish holes with strong scores.
The course playing easy is an understatement. It was far too easy for players of this caliber. If this was a regular tournament, fine, but far too easy for the U.S. Open.
Expect tougher hole placements to make the final round more challenging on Sunday. However, the unprecedented low scoring should continue.
Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson Take Run At U.S. Open Record
Fowler and Schauffele were done early in the day, so this allowed the potential for other golfers to join them or break the new record. Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, and others were on pace through the front nine to catch them.
McIlroy finished the first round with a bogey, but still had a strong showing to shoot 5-under on Thursday. He and Brian Harman are tied for T5 entering the second round of the U.S. Open.
An excellent start to the US Open for Rory McIlroy, who escaped near-disaster on the 18th after a whiff in the long rough with his wedge.
65 (-5) pic.twitter.com/cBv0z18gap
— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) June 16, 2023
The 2016 winner of the U.S. Open, Dustin Johnson had a fantastic effort to finish a stroke ahead of McIlroy and Harman. Johnson is in a tie with Wyndham Clark in T3 following 18 holes of golf.
The late groups struggled to string birdies together on the back nine to preserve Fowler and Schauffele’s record day at the office. There is a long way to go in the U.S. Open, though.
Currently, McIlroy owns the second-best odds to win at +500. Johnson is behind Fowler with +800 odds to win on Sunday. Clark, who is T3 with Johnson, is well behind him at +1600 odds.
Nevertheless, this is still a wide-open tournament going into the second round. Despite shooting 1-under and seven strokes back, the oddsmakers are still giving Masters champion Jon Rahm respect at +2500 odds to win.
