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What a difference a day makes. Less than 24 hours after finishing his second round with a less-than stellar double-bogey, double-bogey, bogey run that dragged him back to level par for this centennial New Zealand Open, 1993 champion Peter Fowler broke The Hills course record with a stunning 62, ten-under-par round. He even found time to miss from six feet for a birdie on the last.
Still, he was able to smile afterwards, something he hadn't come close to doing after that horrendous finish to day two. After jumping up and down on his sand wedge en route to a seven on the par-five 17th hole, Fowler angrily tossed the flagstick across the final green.
He was not a happy man and even an evening swim in the cooling waters of Lake Wakatipu did little to soften his mood. The former Australian Open champion is a man who takes his game very seriously.
Which is hardly surprising, given the wild ups and downs the 48-year-old has endured over the course of a professional career that began three decades ago.
Winner of his national Open as long ago as 1983 and the World Cup with compatriot Wayne Grady six years later, the Sydney native had an outwardly successful time both at home and in Europe throughout the rest of the 1980s and into the next decade.
Until 1993, when 'Chook' (Fowler-chicken-get it?) won the BMW International Open in Munich, that is.
"Even when I was doing okay, I was never entirely comfortable with my swing and my game," he says.
"It was all a bit of a struggle. I never went out there and 'free-wheeled' like some of the other guys seemed to be able to do. I always had to work very hard just to stay as good as I was. Even when I won, my good form would rarely last longer than a week."
Fowler's rigorous self-assessment is essentially accurate. He has never had the best swing. He has never been the best ball-striker. And he has always – to this day, in fact – looked awkward and uncomfortable both over the ball and through his pre-shot routine. What he does have, however, is a short game to die for.
"He is a genius with the short clubs," says his close friend and compatriot, former European Tour professional Mike Clayton.
Even more impressively, around 1990, Seve Ballesteros claimed to be the second best wedge player on the European Tour: "And the best is Peter Fowler."
High praise, indeed. But not even a magic touch around the greens could make up for the sins of Fowler's driver circa 1994/95.
In short – and crooked - the gangly Aussie couldn't hit the world from the tee. Within two years he had lost his European Tour card, condemning him to a nether world existence of Asian and Australasian Tour events. They were dark days for the likeable individual.
Since then, the Auckland resident – he recently became a New Zealand citizen – has paid four visits to the European Tour Qualifying School and has twice lost and won back his playing privileges.
Earlier this year, he finished 18th on the European Challenge Tour money list, a feat that will see him back on the main circuit in 2008.
"No professional golfer has ever been as bad as Pete was and recovered," says Clayton.
In the shorter term, however, Fowler has a second New Zealand Open title well within his sights. Few would deserve a victory more. And no one will have worked harder to achieve it.