For a guy with the boyband looks and the rock-star game, the mood music was considerably contrasting.
Rickie Fowler made plenty of noise during his introduction to the Middle East, firing a 5-under 67 on debut Thursday at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, a fine opening tally matched by pal and playing partner Rory McIlroy.
Clearly amped up, Fowler initially raised the decibels on his return to the National Course on Friday. Two-under for his second round after seven holes, the American seemed set for a surge at Martin Kaymer’s lead, but was abruptly stopped in his tracks on the par-5 eighth.
An errant drive found a large bush and, after a swift search proved futile, Fowler headed back to the tee box to reload. Compiling the error with another couple, he eventually carded a triple bogey. Eight on hole eight: two fat ladies may be championed in bingo, but transported to golf, it never sounds good.
Finally signing for a 75 and a two-under total that dragged him back to the cut mark, Fowler would count himself fortunate. The fat lady had nearly sung on his tournament.
“I shouldn’t have been anywhere close to the cut line; made a couple funky mistakes there,” he said. “But here to play the weekend, so I guess it could be worse.”
He conceded his eighth hole should have been better. Although the driver did not feel too comfortable at times, Fowler was motoring along until he suddenly hit the skids.
“There’s a few holes out here where you can’t miss it in one direction and that happens to be one of them,” he said, with a smile, before asked if he could put it down to inexperience around the capital course.
“Yeah, I know definitely not to hit it that far left there anymore.”
As it is, Fowler has the opportunity to make amends today, when he tees it up for the third round. He tried not be too hard on himself anyway: not only is it his first time in Abu Dhabi, but it marks his first competitive outing in 2015. This early in the season, these things can happen.
“We’ll try to deal better there tomorrow and see if we can get a good round going,” Fowler said. “So just shaking off a little rust - obviously played a bit better yesterday. Be nice to get a good one together tomorrow and see if we can salvage a decent finish over here.”
