At the Fortinet Championship, Justin Lower recorded a nine-under 63 to take a two-shot lead over the field, and Rickie Fowler had a successful opening day before play was suspended due to darkness.
At Silverado Resort and Spa, Lower, who is starting his second PGA Tour season, shot a career-low 63 in the early evening.
At the fog-delayed season opener, he had a two-shot advantage over the defending champion Max Homa and a three-shot advantage over Byeong Hun An, SH Kim, and JJ Spaun.
Fowler began his 15th professional season with a number of changes, including clubs, coaches, and caddies.
His most recent triumph came at the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open, where he started strong, shooting a five-under 67 to finish among nine players four strokes behind Lower.
In the previous three seasons, Fowler only had four top-10 finishes despite playing a round without a bogey. This week, he also started utilising a new set of irons in addition to a new putter.
Fowler, who once held the No. 4 spot in the world, is currently rated 176th. Fowler aspires to revitalise his career with all of the new components in his game.
“Yeah, I always like it when there’s a bogey-free round in there,” Fowler said. “For the most part, there wasn’t an issue today other than having to make a 15-footer when I hit it into the bunker. Other than that, it was a fairly simple day.”
Rickie Fowler opened the Fortinet Championship with a bogey-free 5-under 67 in his third appearance at the event; previously finished T2 (2009) and solo-fourth (2010) when it was contested at CordeValle GC.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) September 16, 2022
Since the competition was held at CordeValle in 2010, Fowler had not participated in it.
“Well, not going to the playoffs and not being on a Presidents Cup team, that’s been really the only reason I haven’t been to Napa yet,” Fowler said. “I’ve always heard good things about the event, so not to say thanks to bad play or anything, but that’s kind of the reason we’re able to be here this week.”
He was happy with his day’s work overall, especially off the tee.
“I set the round-up by driving it fairly nicely, especially the second half of the day,” Fowler said. “And I was just able to keep moving forward. There weren’t many times where I had to play too defensively.”
There were several golfers at four-under, including Matt Kuchar, whose victory at the Sony Open in 2019 was the last of his nine PGA Tour victories.
Lower had a round without a bogey, and his tie for eighth place performance at the Barbasol Championship in July was his best result in 28 PGA Tour appearances dating back to 2013.
“I’ll take it. I birdied half the holes, so that’s always a good start, I guess,” Lower said. “I’m honestly just happy to be in the position I am having I guess, full status.”
For golf tournament, golf live score, Fortinet Championship, golf championship, golf match today, golf club, golf match today and other golf news follow livematchupdatesnews.com.
