RICKIE FOWLER, AIMING to put a season of struggle behind him, fired a nine-under par 63 on Saturday to grab a two-stroke lead over Rory McIlroy in the CJ Cup in Las Vegas.
Fowler notched his best round in three years, firing nine birdies without a bogey at the Summit Club, which is hosting the tournament usually held in South Korea because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fowler won the most recent of his five US PGA Tour titles at the 2019 Phoenix Open. Last season he failed to qualify for the FedEx cup play-offs for the first time in his 11-year career and he came into the week ranked 128th in the world.
He will have his work cut out for him on Sunday with low scores abounding at the Summit, where McIlroy capped his bogey-free 10-under par 62 with a 21-foot eagle at the 18th. He’s looking forward to the challenge.
“I haven’t been there a lot the last couple of years, so it’s nice to be back in that position,” Fowler said. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s been a long road, tough times. We’re not done.”
McIlroy was nine off the pace at the start of the round, but raced up the leaderboard with five birdies in a row from the third through the seventh holes. He added a birdies at the ninth, 12th and 14th before his final flourish.
“I think on a course like this you’re going to have stretches where you’re going to play good golf and hit good shots and maybe just not hole the putts,” McIlroy said.
“I played an eight-hole stretch yesterday in even par, I made eight pars in a row. It was nice to finish with a birdie last night. Then today I played a stretch of golf, played nine holes in six-under and all of a sudden you feel a little better about yourself.
“The big thing is I’ve played the last two days keeping it in the short stuff and I haven’t made any bogeys. That’s huge.”
McIlroy is one stroke in front of a Mexico’s Abraham Ancer (63), Australian Adam Scott (67) and American Robert Streb (65).
England’s Tyrrell Hatton and American Keith Mitchell are tied a further stroke back on 199 and Australian Cameron Smith and England’s Ian Poulter are tied on 200 — making it eight players within five shots of Fowler’s lead.
Shane Lowry carded a three-under par 69 on Saturday but finds himself well outside contention on four-under for the tournament.
