USA Network
For the first time all week, Ricky Fowler fouled the greens at the Los Angeles Country Club — and the auditor reported it to him.
But Fowler, always the entertainer, had a perfect response and probably never uttered a word.
Fowler set the US Open single-round record with 62 on Thursday, and made five birdies in his ninth opener on Friday to move up to 11 under the score at the turn. It took him just 20 holes to get two short of the record, the fastest in tournament history.
But let’s go back to the 7th green, where Fowler’s hot putter cooled down *a bit* (and temporarily).
Fowler hit his tee shot on the Giant’s 299-yard par-3 on the front edge of the green and left his first putt on a 15-foot touchdown. His par attempt wasn’t much better, coming out about a foot and a half away. Obviously, one fan wasn’t too happy with it either.
“What do you do?” he shouted an emphatic, obviously very close to one of NBC’s microphones. But Fowler had the perfect response.
He looked in the direction of the syllables and shrugged, though it was hard to tell if Fowler had said something to the person.
The crowd erupted with laughter as Fowler cleaned his infamous shot, which still held the one-shot lead over Windham Clark. When he pulled his ball out of the cup, he said goodbye to the straits for one last wave.
If Fowler said anything to a fan – who clearly Los Angeles Country Club could handle better than the best in the world this week – the broadcast just didn’t catch it. However, an analyst on USA Network radio made something of a California native could have responded with.
“I’m leading the US Open by a narrow margin, that’s what I’m doing here,” he said.
Of course, Fowler did not lead the US Open “by a small margin” for a long time. He split a par-5 8 to immediately bring their lead back to two at 11 under.
Talk about the last laugh.