Rickie Fowler rang up 10 birdies Thursday en route to breaking the U.S. Open single-round scoring record of 62.
Fowler went 8-under par at the par-70 Los Angeles Country Club, which is hosting a major championship for the first time. Not far behind him, Xander Schauffele was 7 under through 16 holes, on track to shoot a 63 or match Fowler's 62.
Only one round of 62 had ever been seen at a men's major championship, when South African Branden Grace carded the number in the third round of the 2017 Open Championship.
Six players had shot a round of 63 in the U.S. Open's 123-year history: Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Vijay Singh of Fiji, Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood of England.
The 34-year-old California native teed off in the morning wave of the first round and played his first nine in 3-under -- five birdies, two bogeys. His birdie putt of nearly 16 feet at the 18th hole launched a string of four straight birdies.
At the par-5 first, Fowler's third shot out of a greenside bunker stopped 5 feet from the pin, and his second shot at the par-4 second nestled to about 2 feet of the cup. And at the par-4 third, Fowler's approach spun back and glanced off the ball of one of his playing partners, stopping 4 feet and change from the pin. The resulting birdies pushed him ahead of the pack by multiple shots.
Fowler's final birdies came at Nos. 6 and 8, the latter a par-5 that saw him in trouble off the tree. His drive landed in a barranca that winds throughout the property, but he blasted out into the fairway, avoiding an overhanging tree, and reached the green in three shots before sinking a 13-foot birdie.
He two-putted the par-3 ninth hole to conclude his historic round.
Fowler is a longtime fan favorite on the PGA Tour who has finished runner-up three times at majors, but without a victory to his name.
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