Fowler posts round of the day at Masters

A scoreboard watcher, especially when it’s the old-school big boards at Augusta National, Rickie Fowler knew that if he made his par putt on No. 18 he would be tied for the lead in the Masters.

Fowler drilled the four-foot putt to card the day’s low round, a 5-under 67, and is tied with Charley Hoffman, Sergio Garcia and Thomas Pieters at 4-under 140 going into Saturday’s third round. He will tee off in the second-to-last group with Pieters a 2:50 p.m.

“I love being in that position where you kind of know exactly where you’re at, whether it’s the matches we have early in the week of practice rounds and you have a putt on the last hole to win,” Fowler said. “It’s like having a ball at the end of the game. I like that position.”

Fowler has yet to win a major, though in 2014 he came close with top-five finishes in all four. He has never been in the lead going into the third round of a major.

He said lessons learned in those tournaments, as well as in others and in his four wins on the PGA Tour, should help him in the final two rounds in what are expected to be scoring conditions after two days of winds.

“On the weekends, I tend to try to walk a little slower, make sure we’re taking our time,” he said. “Because my tendency is to kind of speed up and go a little too quickly.”

Fowler is tied atop the leaderboard because he is 12th in driving distance (279.9 yards) and first in strokes gained putting (3.235).