PHILADELPHIA — Rickie Fowler reached back 10 years deep in the memory bank when asked Thursday afternoon about the mixed reaction to his invitation to next week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C.

This isn’t the Fowler of 2015. And this surely isn’t the Fowler of 2011, when he walked around the grounds at Aronimink as a 22-year-old star whose clothes shined brightly and hair hung low. He wore orange during the opening round of the Truist Championship on Thursday at the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course, but it was more aged, a burnt orange shirt paired with white pants and a white hat. The ropes aren’t lined with little Fowler fans dressed in bright Puma gear. He’s 36 years old now, a dad to two young kids that he doted on after signing his scorecard, and carries a sticker-covered water bottle around the course like a millennial out for a hike.

Fowler has won just once since 2019 and has just two top-10s in major tournaments during that same span. There is, however, no doubt about his popularity, even now. Better choices for events like this one, which he is playing in on a sponsor’s exemption, and next week’s major? Maybe in terms of quality, but not popularity.

“The negative stuff, I would say, kind of helps me in a way because it fuels me to kind of go out and prove people wrong,” Fowler said Thursday after an opening-round, 7-under 63. “I feel like there was something prior to the 2015 Players saying I was the most overrated player, and that worked out all right that week.”

Fowler won that week at TPC Sawgrass. And while a players’ poll calling him overrated back then isn’t the same as some people questioning whether he’s worthy of an invitation to a major, Fowler seems content clustering it all into the same box. Whatever works.

Fowler is with four players tied for third at 7-under, a group that includes Collin Morikawa. Keith Mitchell, after an opening-round, course-record 61, leads the 72-player field at 9-under after one round, and Denny McCarthy is a shot back.

Fowler was feeling it early on a day when conditions at the 7,100-yard, par-70 Wissahickon course were favorable to some of the best players in the world. He birdied his first two holes before making par on the par-3 third. That was followed by four consecutive birdies before pars at the eighth and ninth holes. He nearly canned a 25-plus-foot putt on nine for birdie. Still a front-nine 29 was matched only by Mitchell, the leader.

“I felt like some of the pin locations were pretty gettable, and with the conditions today, you were going to have to make birdies,” Fowler said. “The first seven holes, you can make a lot of birdies there.”

Fowler met some resistance on the back half. He narrowly missed a few birdie chances and was forced to scramble a few times to make par. Five consecutive pars to start the back were followed by a birdie on the par-5 15th. Fowler drove the ball just shy of Hell’s Half Acre, the medley of bunkers that splits the hole’s fairways. From there, he missed his shot right into a bunker. He nearly made magic from there, hitting the hole with his pitch shot before cleaning up a six-foot birdie.

Fowler gave that stroke back on 17. On No. 18, a 529-yard par 4, Fowler drove it 330 yards and had less than 200 yards in. His approach shot landed 12 feet left of the flag, and Fowler poured in a putt that produced a loud roar from an engaged Philadelphia-area crowd enjoying its biggest PGA Tour event in the region in three years.

Fowler’s not alone near the top of the leaderboard as a sponsor’s exemption. Mitchell is one, too. When did he find out he was playing?

“Good question,” Mitchell said. “Give or take a week-ish ago.”

Fowler said of being a sponsor’s exemption: “You obviously want to come out and prove yourself. I haven’t been playing all that well last year, and the start of this year hasn’t been very far-off. I’m fortunate enough to have spent the years I have been out here — tournaments give me the opportunity to come play.”

Might as well seize it.

So there Fowler is, one round down, three more to go. But the conditions that allowed for 64 players to break par may not be so favorable moving forward. Tee times Friday were moved up to 8 a.m. because there’s wet weather in the forecast most of the day. Wind is in the forecast over the weekend, too.

“I figured scores were going to be pretty low with the softer conditions and not much wind today,” Fowler said. “It will be a little different maybe tomorrow with moisture and having to play with a wet golf ball.

“We’ll see. We’re all enjoying [the course] because we don’t get to see many courses like this — old-school architecture — throughout the year.”

Sound perspective from a golfer who himself may be more old-school these days than the Fowler of old.

©2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.