Rickie Fowler Xander Schauffele U.S. Open Jun 13, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; A detailed view of the U.S. Open object on the 1st hole during a practice round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Los Angeles Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports
FeaturedGolfBy Chris Novak on

Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele just recorded historic performances at the 2023 U.S. Open.

The two golfers teed off the first round at the U.S. Open in grand style. They’re both tied up at the top of the leaderboard after Day 1 with scores of 62, 8-under. According to ESPN Stats & Info, that’s the lowest-recorded score in any men’s major championship ever.

According to the renowned statistics database, the scores also tied the mark that Branden Grace set at the 2017 Open Championship in the third round.

These absurd scores set a significant pace in the major event. They are both five strokes ahead of Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler, Paul Barjon, and Si Woo Kim, all of whom shot a 67, 3-under.

Fowler recorded 10 birdies through his first 18 holes. He bogeyed twice, but that didn’t stop him from his historic day. Schauffele didn’t bogey and hit eight birdies in the first round.

Neither Fowler nor Schauffele has won major championships before. Fowler finished second in the 2018 Masters Tournament, while Schauffele has a second-place finish at the Masters Tournament under his belt as well. This time in 2019, a year after. He also finished second at the Open Championship in 2018.

So are these performances a precursor to another set of historic marks later this weekend? We’ll see, but both golfers got out to historically hot starts.

The golf world reacted to the absurd performances Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele turned in at the U.S. Open.

[ESPN Stats & Info]

About Chris Novak

Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022

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