Fowler one clear in Houston

Rickie Fowler holds the lead after the opening round of the Shell Houston Open in Texas.

Fowler carded a flawless 64 to finish on eight-under-par, one clear of Korea’s Sung Kang with former Open champion Stewart Cink, Jhonattan Vegas and Kyle Stanley a shot further back.

Starting on the tenth, the world number nine picked up four shots in his opening five holes and a fifth birdie at the 16th saw him reach the turn in 31. Birdies at the third, fourth and ninth meant he ended the day one clear of the field and he believes his decision to miss last week's WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play has paid dividends.

"The reason last week that I wanted to be off (was to) get some downtime rest, spend time with friends," Fowler told PGA Tour Live.

"I just don't play four in a row and Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer Invitational) is a place that I like to play. Unfortunately, I had to miss it last year, but I wasn't going to miss it this year.

"So it was nice to have the week off to kind of relax, recharge a bit, and I love playing here. I like playing my way in the majors and they've been able to do a great job here with conditions around the greens and making it similar as possible to next week.

"Just playing and going through the process and getting ready makes things a lot easier when you go tee it up Thursday next week."

Sung Kang looked set to join Fowler at the top of the leaderboard until he bogeyed the last to sign for a seven-under-par 65.

Elsewhere, Justin Rose is three shots off the lead after an opening 67.

Rose bogeyed the fourth but recovered immediately before picking up a shot at the par-three ninth, the first of five successive birdies. Another birdies at the 15th saw him move to six-under par but the Englishman was made to pay for a poor chip on the 16th and he dropped back into a share of sixth on five-under.

"I'm really pleased with that because I saw Rickie had shot eight under and I was kind of grinding through that early stretch, so to get it going from that point onwards was great," Rose told Sky Sports.

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