CBS Sports special details Jack Nicklaus, the devoted family man

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Rickie Fowler takes being called the best player without a major championship as a compliment and would rather be remembered for what he does off the golf course than on it. But don’t mistake that for a lack of drive to win on the biggest stages. Fowler opened the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with an impressive 5-under 66 to tie for the early wave lead with Louis Oosthuizen and Xander Schauffele on Thursday, putting his resume back in the spotlight. The uber popular now 30-year-old has five PGA TOUR wins, including the 2015 PLAYERS Championship, but has had to deal with multiple near misses in major championships. This has seen some claim he may have underachieved. Coming into the 119th U.S. Open Fowler had 10 top-10s in majors to his name without saluting. In 2014 he was inside the top-5 of all four majors. Lately he’s now 20-under in opening rounds at majors since 2017, the best of any player. But so far no trophies. He claims he’s not worried. “Obviously there’s a lot of great players that haven’t won a major. It’s not necessarily something I think about or worry about. I know that when the time is right, it’s going to happen,â€� Fowler said entering the week. “And I’ve been in the position to have a chance and right there in the mix come Sunday. I don’t necessarily put my life on it, looking at what success is. If I don’t win a major, that’s not going to necessarily define me. Do I want to win a major? Yes. I would love to and then knock off some more after that. But it’s not going to define who I am.â€� Fowler is acutely aware Phil Mickelson won his first major in his 30s. Jason Day had nine top-10s in majors before his first win. The examples are everywhere of good players taking time. And the near misses have provided valuable experience as he heads into the next three rounds. He claims he now has a great level of comfort with the nerves. And he’s aware of all the things that can conspire against you. Staying in the moment is important, staying detailed also. If something in the process is off, he will back off and start again. “That gets more and more important, especially when you get to Saturday, Sunday, and things start to speed up,â€� he says. “If you’re walking fast it kind of falls into your swing so the more I can stay at the same pace, breathing the same… It’s a lot easier said than done.â€� Fowler certainly looked calm throughout Thursday’s round hitting 13 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens. He made it look easy at times. “You don’t have to do anything special in majors. It’s just being disciplined and executing the shot that’s at hand,â€� Fowler adds. “It would be nice to see if we can top that, if not just keeping matching it.â€�

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Bay Hill was bustling Thursday. The fans were limited in numbers but they all wanted the same dose of entertainment provided by Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau. RELATED: Leaderboard | McIlroy starts strong, Spieth builds on momentum at Bay Hill First it was McIlroy, slowly feeling better about his game, and with good reason. Starting with a 55-foot putt on the par-3 second hole, he ran off five straight birdies for a share of the lead with Corey Conners in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard at 6-under 66. In the group behind McIlroy was DeChambeau, who has been contemplating a shot across the water to cut the 528-yard sixth hole down to size by going for the green. This was not the day with a slight breeze into his face, so the U.S. Open champion had some fun. He took out an iron, and then hit a conservative tee shot (309 yards) to the middle of the fairway. It was a boring birdie, his third in a row, and he opened with a 67. “There was a high expectation level of me trying to go for the green there, and it was a little pressure that I wasn’t expecting,” DeChambeau said. “But no, it was fun. The crowds were great with it. I pulled out an iron as a joke off the tee box. And for me, it was just too much off of the right and more into the wind than anything.” In the group with DeChambeau was Jordan Spieth, making his debut at Bay Hill, and producing high adventure in a 70 that left him satisfied he remained on track — and irritated hitting off the toe of his driver and into the water on No. 6. Even having to hit his third from the tee, he salvaged bogey with a 25-foot putt and made a 35-foot birdie on the next hole. “Definitely proud of the way I responded, but the way I putted today, certainly would have liked a lower number,” Spieth said. “But it all just comes down to one shot for me today.” Conners played in the afternoon and was 6 under through seven holes, capped off by an eagle on the par-5 16th. He took the lead with birdie on the par-5 sixth, but finished with a three-putt bogey from 60 feet to fall into a tie with McIlroy. Jason Kokrak opened with a 68. Of the 60 players who teed off in the morning, only six broke 70. Defending champion Tyrrell Hatton shot a 77, while past Bay Hill winner Francesco Molinari took a step back from his progress with a 78. McIlroy wasn’t too happy with his game after missing the cut — a rarity for him these days — at Riviera, then not having ideal practice sessions. He still managed some improvement last week in the World Golf Championships event, and saw even better results Thursday. Most pleasing was seeing the ball go where and how he wanted it. He made three of his birdies on par 3s, the strength of Bay Hill. What stood out was a pair of 5-irons into the wind on the 14th and 17th holes, both tight draws, flighted the way he wanted to about 15 feet. “Those shots last week that I was trying to hit were missing the target 20 yards left,” he said. “So it was nice to just see them coming out in the window I was anticipating.” He said it was his best round of the year, and it helps being at Bay Hill, where McIlroy had a victory and no finish worse than a tie for sixth the last four years. He has seen enough of Tiger Woods’ eight victories in the Arnold Palmer Invitational to appreciate how to attack. “He played it very conservatively. He took care of the par 5s. And that was usually good enough to get the job done,” McIlroy said. “So sort of take a little bit of a leaf out of his book.” He only made birdie on two of the par 5s, going long on the 16th and having to lay up on the 12th from a fairway bunker. Through it all, it was the activity outside the ropes at Bay Hill that stood out. The Arnold Palmer Invitational was the last PGA TOUR event that had a full complement of fans, one week before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf. The tournament is allowing 25% of capacity — roughly 5,000 fans a day — and when they are watching some of golf’s bigger draws such as McIlroy, DeChambeau and Spieth, it feels even larger. All were wearing masks. “It’s nice to hear some cheers and a little bit of energy from the fans,” Martin Laird said after a 69. “It was fun to play in front of a crowd again.”

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The man who travels the PGA TOUR each week to help players tweak, tune and customize their Titleist Vokey Wedges is tour rep Aaron Dill. Dill – or “ADâ€�, as he’s often called – has been working with Vokey for more than a decade. In that time, he’s worked on some very interesting sole grinds, giving PGA TOUR players more versatility with their scoring clubs and getting the likes of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth dialed in to play their best golf. At this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, we spotted a unique 60-degree wedge in the bags of Cameron Davis and Keith Mitchell. We wanted to learn more about the theory behind the design, so we sat down with Dill to talk about what makes the club so special. ** GolfWRX: We spotted an interesting grind on some 60-degree wedges… Dill: Years ago, a couple of players talked about this one grind called the “Vâ€�. It’s a fairly popular grind … on TOUR, but some of the things players talked about, the issues, were not being able to open the face. … They want to be able to open the face and have it sit pretty low to the ground and get under the ball easily, but that was a bit of a challenge. So, we can do either one of two things. We can grind it down, but every time we grind it down, we sacrifice performance everywhere else, and we’re trying to make the smallest possible changes to improve shots and not change the rest of what guys are comfortable with or know how to do with certain wedges. We realized in order to … keep those things the same and allow that wedge to sit closer, we basically flattened that rear section of that wedge on the V and put this little channel in the back. And that basically moves that contact point around a little bit — moves it further back — and allows that wedge to sit closer to the ground for those guys around the green where they need the versatility. GolfWRX: We noticed Davis currently has one in the bag. So he wants to play one shot when it’s square, and another when it’s fanned open a bit? Dill: Exactly. Like most guys out here, he asks, “Build me a wedge that does everything,” which is a tough thing to do, considering all the conditions they play in. … In the case of this wedge, when he’s hitting square-faced shots from the fairway or pitching square-faced and chipping, it offers a lot of protection and bounce, but once he goes greenside and needs to create lift, or have some versatility, … we grind off that one spot and give him that option. ** Wedge grinds are so important. Finding one that offers the greatest amount of versatility for your swing and course conditions is vital in performing your best around the greens. The recreational golfer may not have Dill and the Vokey team at his or her disposal, but golfers of any ability can visit a qualified fitter and educate themselves about their swing characteristics and the optimal wedge setup and grind options. Of course, a few cosmetic touches don’t hurt either. Mitchell’s wedge features stamping that offers a tip of the cap to Dill for his innovative grind, calling the design the “Advanced Breakthrough Proto” and assigning an R&D number.

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