Rickie Fowler opened the RBC Heritage with a 6-under 65 on April 18, 2026, and was two shots back of the lead after the first round at Harbour Town Golf Links. He birdied five of his first seven holes, then added birdies on Nos. 12 and 17 to stay near the top of the board.
The round had the kind of shot-making Fowler said he had been chasing. He hit four approach shots to within 9 feet during the opening birdie run and rolled in a 38-foot birdie putt. He also had to work for it at the par-4 ninth hole, where he bogeyed after dumping his approach in the bunker behind the green, but he was bogey-free coming home.
Fowler’s 65 left him tied for fourth in Strokes Gained: Total after the first round, a sharp jump from where his season stood before Thursday. His average in that category had been 36th, even though he had already posted four top-20 finishes in five starts. That made the opening round at Harbour Town more than a fast start; it was evidence that a player who had been searching for rhythm finally found some of it in the right place.
That mattered because Fowler arrived after two straight cuts in Texas and a missed Masters for the fifth time in six years, then spent Monday through Wednesday pounding balls at Harbour Town. He hit 561 captured shots on the TOURCAST Range over those three days, the most of any player, including 215 shots on Wednesday alone while he spent almost two hours on the range. Fowler said he sent videos to Butch while working on his game and described the effort as a reset after several slow weeks.
Harbour Town has long been a familiar stop for Fowler. He played his first PGA TOUR event here as a 19-year-old 18 Aprils ago, and he said it remains a course he looks forward to because it rewards the kind of control he had been trying to regain. On Thursday, that showed up most clearly on the par-5 15th hole, where his drive settled by a tree and he had to punch out left-handed before saving par. With his wife and two daughters watching a season that has already had both frustration and promise, Fowler walked off two back and with a round that looked more like the player he has been trying to become again.
