Rickie Fowler comes inches from par-4 ace at Travelers Championship

Rickie Fowler won’t win the Travelers Championship, but he nearly matched a piece of rare history at the season’s final Signature Event.

Fowler’s tee shot settled inside a foot at the 293-yard, par-4 15th at TPC River Highlands (10 inches, exactly), as he nearly became the second player in TOUR history to make a hole-in-one on a par 4.

TPC River Highlands’ par-4 15th is one of the TOUR’s most memorable drivable par 4s, with water left of the green that can penalize a slightly pulled tee shot. But at under 300 yards, the hole is gettable for the entire field, with a leaderboard-flipping eagle always a possibility. Fowler played a baby draw with a fairway metal that landed on the green’s front portion and rolled toward the back-left hole location with perfect pace, just missing on the cup’s left side. Fowler, sporting his trademark Sunday orange, smiled and shrugged as if to say it was a mere misread.

The tap-in eagle moved Fowler to 6-under on his round, 14-under for the tournament. He opened in rounds of 64-69-69 at TPC River Highlands, a respectable showing but 10 strokes back of 54-hole leader Tom Kim.

Andrew Magee recorded the TOUR’s lone par-4 ace at the 2001 WM Phoenix Open, making a 1 on the 332-yard, par-4 17th hole during the first round at TPC Scottsdale. There isn’t video footage of the ball rolling into the hole, although an angle exists of the ball deflecting off Tom Byrum’s putter on the green (playing in the group ahead) before finding the cup.

Fowler’s shot was amply documented – but it came just a hair away from matching Magee’s historic albatross.