Wyndham Championship, Round 2: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

DETROIT – Rickie Fowler was fourth in the world in 2016, but came into this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic at 31st, and 108th in the FedExCup. He dabbled with cross-handed putting as he missed his fourth cut in six starts at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina two weeks ago. For his full swing he resorted to an overlapping grip as he practiced at home last week. Oh, and he also has a (relatively) new coach as he searches for some sort of rebound in the Motor City. Add it all up and you might think Fowler, a five-time PGA TOUR winner, was pressing. Think again. RELATED: Featured groups, tee times | Getting dialed in on the AREA 313 Challenge “Anytime you make seven birdies,” he said at Detroit Golf Club, where he signed for a 5-under 67 that included a double-bogey at the 18th hole, “it’s a good day.” Fowler was in a logjam at 5 under and two back of early first-round leaders Doc Redman and Scott Stallings. For Fowler, a Rocket Mortgage and Quicken Loans ambassador, the solid opening round wasn’t so surprising. The cross-handed putting at RBC Heritage? “A reset,” he said – and something he’s done throughout his career. As for the overlapping grip he used while practicing with his new coach John Tillery last week? “I was working on some stuff,” Fowler said. “Colonial, Hilton Head, unfortunately I got some pretty bad blisters and so yeah, last week at home – I mean Friday at Hilton Head was not fun trying to fight through that. Felt like I did OK, but not good enough. “So last week at home I wasn’t able to play interlock,” he continued, “which is my normal grip, so just kind of had to hit balls overlap and work on some fundamentals and not really worry too much about how I was hitting it and stuff like that. So once I got here, Tuesday was the first day I was actually able to start hitting balls somewhat interlock. It was still bothering me, but they’re healing, so today was the first day that it felt at least good enough to go ahead and go.” Oh, and those recent missed cuts? “It’s a fine line,” he said. True enough. He only missed by one at Harbour Town. Change has been the name of the game for Fowler. He began working with Tillery, who also teaches Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown, last September. He also got married. He came down with a bacterial infection. In the midst of all that, results have been uneven. Fowler finished T5 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and T10 at The American Express, but missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open. He was T37 as the Waste Management Phoenix Open defending champ, and missed the cut at The Honda Classic. He played OK in a T18 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, but after round one of THE PLAYERS Championship came the pandemic and a three-month hiatus. The goal of his work with Tillery, Fowler has said, is to be less reliant on timing. “With the body working correctly,” he said at The American Express, “there’s really only one place for the arms and the club to go.” His stats – 120th in Greens in Regulation, 110th in birdies – suggest a work in progress. He was better Thursday, hitting nine of 14 fairways and 15 greens in regulation. On 18, his ninth hole of the day, his ball found a nasty lie in front of the green. Fowler took a mighty hack, hoping the ball might come out softly, but it shot over the green. If anything, he said, he chalks up his recent lull to poor putting. “I was standing too close to the ball and the putter was going a little outside on the way back,” he said. “And then with that it was causing me to have to back out or my head moving backwards through impact. I was pulling a lot of putts, and once you do that, you start getting two‑way misses because you’re trying to match it up.” Fowler, who has dropped to 64th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, is now standing slightly farther from the ball, and with the ball slightly farther back in his stance. “Just cleaned up some fundamentals to allow me to actually go ahead and stroke the ball and not try and manipulate it,” he said. He took a tidy 27 putts Thursday. That didn’t exactly qualify as “off like a rocket,” but he’d achieved liftoff.

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LAS VEGAS — Peter Uihlein topped the leaderboard at 8-under 63 on Thursday in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, with Jordan Spieth three strokes back in his season debut. Uihlein birdied six of his final nine holes in the morning round at TPC Summerlin. “It’s nice to get off to a good start, especially when there wasn’t much wind,” Uihlein said. “I’ve heard mixed reviews on the forecast this week, so nice to get off to a good start and take advantage of good conditions early.” Seth Reeves shot 64, electing to finish the par-5 ninth after the horn sounded suspending play because of darkness. Harold Varner III and Robert Streb were two strokes back at 65. Spieth shot 66 in his first career start in a domestic fall event. “It’s gettable without the wind,” Spieth said. “We got really, really good conditions this morning, so an 8 under, certainly thought that was out there. To see Peter shoot that was no surprise. Then the guys in the afternoon are going to have it tougher. Looks like we might get the good end of the draw. It’s always nice having a little bit of luck in Vegas, right?” Fellow U.S. Ryder Cup player Bryson DeChambeau also was at 66 with Si Woo Kim, Whee Kim, Sebastian Munoz, Sam Ryder and Abraham Ancer. “It was a good round for sure,” DeChambeau said. “Unfortunately, had a couple three-putts and had some missed opportunities, but I’m a little rusty on the putting green.” DeChambeau and Spieth joined Ryder Cup teammates Webb Simpson, Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler and U.S. captain Jim Furyk in the field. Fowler and Simpson shot 68s in the same group, Finau had a 69, and Furyk a 71. Spieth is playing for the first time since the Ryder Cup and making his first stroke-play start since the BMW Championship in early September. “It’s been really the last kind of six tournaments or so of the regular season, too, I started to clean up kind of in the setup and vision,” Spieth said. “It’s getting close to where I feel like I can just kind of point, aim, shoot, which is where I want to be.” Uihlein opened on the back nine, backing birdies on Nos. 11, 14 and 15. Riding a hot putter on the second nine, he birdied the first four holes, added another on No. 6, bogeyed the par-4 seventh and rebounded with a birdie on the par-5 ninth. “I hadn’t been putting great the first few weeks of the season,” Uihlein said. “I put in a lot of work last week for a few days and switched putters, so it’s nice to kind of see that hard work kind of pay off this quickly. Wasn’t really expecting it.” The son of Acushnet/Titleist chairman and CEO Wally Uihlein, the 29-year-old former Oklahoma State player is winless on the PGA TOUR. He won the 2010 U.S. Amateur, took the European Tour’s 2013 Madeira Islands Open and the Web.com Tour’s 2017 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. “I’ve always believed the game of golf is more of a marathon and a journey and not a sprint,” Uihlein said. “It’s one of those things, if you keep working hard, keep your head down, keep focused, stay disciplined, results will follow. You’re not really trying to press or force anything.”

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