Rickie Fowler Misses Qualification For U.S. Open

The idea of Rickie Fowler missing a cut for any tournament sounds fairly bizarre, but that's what happened Tuesday at the qualifying round of the U.S. Open on Tuesday.

Fowler had five holes to play Tuesday morning after rain delayed the qualifier at Brookside and The Lakes. He needed three birdies in those final five holes, but his chip from over the back of the 18th green was almost a full turn short, dashing any hopes of pulling it off.

"That left him one shot out of the 5-for-4 playoff for the remaining spots to the U.S. Open next week at Torrey Pines in San Diego," wrote Doug Ferguson of The Associated Press.

Fowler finished with a 66 and stuck around The Lakes to participate in a 12-man playoff to decide who would be the second alternate from Ohio. But even winning that offered no guarantees to get into the U.S. Open.

“I'm obviously disappointed. I should have made it outright fairly easily,” Fowler told reporters. “Not playing that well (at Brookside) and to be close to a spot is a bummer. But I love where my game is at and where it's going. Looking at the big picture, there's a lot of good things ahead.”

Fowler has not missed the U.S. Open since 2010 -- and this marks the second major he'll miss this year. He also did not play in The Masters.

"This morning it was really, yeah, gas pedal down," Fowler said. "We executed that, minus the putts. I gave myself looks, I made a nice one to start on 14 to kind of get things going. Had some good looks coming in.

"Unfortunately, there were some tough clubs that had some movement, and it was tough to match the kind of line and speed, ones that you kind of get out there and hope you got it right. Unfortunately, it didn't work out."