diff --git a/src/strings/strings.go b/src/strings/strings.go
index 2650fb057c..a01eb698c4 100644
--- a/src/strings/strings.go
+++ b/src/strings/strings.go
@@ -290,11 +290,118 @@ func SplitAfter(s, sep string) []string {
 	return genSplit(s, sep, len(sep), -1)
 }
 
+var asciiSpace = [256]uint8{'\t': 1, '\n': 1, '\v': 1, '\f': 1, '\r': 1, ' ': 1}
+
 // Fields splits the string s around each instance of one or more consecutive white space
 // characters, as defined by unicode.IsSpace, returning an array of substrings of s or an
 // empty list if s contains only white space.
 func Fields(s string) []string {
-	return FieldsFunc(s, unicode.IsSpace)
+	// First count the fields.
+	// This is an exact count if s is ASCII, otherwise it is an approximation.
+	n := 0
+	wasSpace := 1
+	// setBits is used to track which bits are set in the bytes of s.
+	setBits := uint8(0)
+	for i := 0; i < len(s); i++ {
+		r := s[i]
+		setBits |= r
+		isSpace := int(asciiSpace[r])
+		n += wasSpace & ^isSpace
+		wasSpace = isSpace
+	}
+
+	if setBits < utf8.RuneSelf { // ASCII fast path
+		a := make([]string, n)
+		na := 0
+		fieldStart := 0
+		i := 0
+		// Skip spaces in the front of the input.
+		for i < len(s) && asciiSpace[s[i]] != 0 {
+			i++
+		}
+		fieldStart = i
+		for i < len(s) {
+			if asciiSpace[s[i]] == 0 {
+				i++
+				continue
+			}
+			a[na] = s[fieldStart:i]
+			na++
+			i++
+			// Skip spaces in between fields.
+			for i < len(s) && asciiSpace[s[i]] != 0 {
+				i++
+			}
+			fieldStart = i
+		}
+		if fieldStart < len(s) { // Last field might end at EOF.
+			a[na] = s[fieldStart:]
+		}
+		return a
+	}
+
+	// Some runes in the input string are not ASCII.
+	// Same general approach as in the ASCII path but
+	// uses DecodeRuneInString and unicode.IsSpace if
+	// a non-ASCII rune needs to be decoded and checked
+	// if it corresponds to a space.
+	a := make([]string, 0, n)
+	fieldStart := 0
+	i := 0
+	// Skip spaces in the front of the input.
+	for i < len(s) {
+		if c := s[i]; c < utf8.RuneSelf {
+			if asciiSpace[c] == 0 {
+				break
+			}
+			i++
+		} else {
+			r, w := utf8.DecodeRuneInString(s[i:])
+			if !unicode.IsSpace(r) {
+				break
+			}
+			i += w
+		}
+	}
+	fieldStart = i
+	for i < len(s) {
+		if c := s[i]; c < utf8.RuneSelf {
+			if asciiSpace[c] == 0 {
+				i++
+				continue
+			}
+			a = append(a, s[fieldStart:i])
+			i++
+		} else {
+			r, w := utf8.DecodeRuneInString(s[i:])
+			if !unicode.IsSpace(r) {
+				i += w
+				continue
+			}
+			a = append(a, s[fieldStart:i])
+			i += w
+		}
+		// Skip spaces in between fields.
+		for i < len(s) {
+			if c := s[i]; c < utf8.RuneSelf {
+				if asciiSpace[c] == 0 {
+					break
+				}
+				i++
+			} else {
+				r, w := utf8.DecodeRuneInString(s[i:])
+				if !unicode.IsSpace(r) {
+					break
+				}
+				i += w
+			}
+		}
+		fieldStart = i
+	}
+	if fieldStart < len(s) { // Last field might end at EOF.
+		a = append(a, s[fieldStart:])
+	}
+	return a
 }
 
 // FieldsFunc splits the string s at each run of Unicode code points c satisfying f(c)
diff --git a/src/strings/strings_test.go b/src/strings/strings_test.go
index 97041eb9ac..58314a6868 100644
--- a/src/strings/strings_test.go
+++ b/src/strings/strings_test.go
@@ -452,6 +452,7 @@ var fieldstests = []FieldsTest{
 	{"", []string{}},
 	{" ", []string{}},
 	{" \t ", []string{}},
+	{"\u2000", []string{}},
 	{"  abc  ", []string{"abc"}},
 	{"1 2 3 4", []string{"1", "2", "3", "4"}},
 	{"1  2  3  4", []string{"1", "2", "3", "4"}},
@@ -459,6 +460,9 @@ var fieldstests = []FieldsTest{
 	{"1\u20002\u20013\u20024", []string{"1", "2", "3", "4"}},
 	{"\u2000\u2001\u2002", []string{}},
 	{"\n™\t™\n", []string{"™", "™"}},
+	{"\n\u20001™2\u2000 \u2001 ™", []string{"1™2", "™"}},
+	{"\n1\uFFFD \uFFFD2\u20003\uFFFD4", []string{"1\uFFFD", "\uFFFD2", "3\uFFFD4"}},
+	{"1\xFF\u2000\xFF2\xFF \xFF", []string{"1\xFF", "\xFF2\xFF", "\xFF"}},
 	{faces, []string{faces}},
 }
 
@@ -1473,19 +1477,55 @@ var makeFieldsInput = func() string {
 	return string(x)
 }
 
-var fieldsInput = makeFieldsInput()
+var makeFieldsInputASCII = func() string {
+	x := make([]byte, 1<<20)
+	// Input is ~10% space, rest ASCII non-space.
+	for i := range x {
+		if rand.Intn(10) == 0 {
+			x[i] = ' '
+		} else {
+			x[i] = 'x'
+		}
+	}
+	return string(x)
+}
+
+var stringdata = []struct{ name, data string }{
+	{"ASCII", makeFieldsInputASCII()},
+	{"Mixed", makeFieldsInput()},
+}
 
 func BenchmarkFields(b *testing.B) {
-	b.SetBytes(int64(len(fieldsInput)))
-	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
-		Fields(fieldsInput)
+	for _, sd := range stringdata {
+		b.Run(sd.name, func(b *testing.B) {
+			for j := 1 << 4; j <= 1<<20; j <<= 4 {
+				b.Run(fmt.Sprintf("%d", j), func(b *testing.B) {
+					b.ReportAllocs()
+					b.SetBytes(int64(j))
+					data := sd.data[:j]
+					for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+						Fields(data)
+					}
+				})
+			}
+		})
 	}
 }
 
 func BenchmarkFieldsFunc(b *testing.B) {
-	b.SetBytes(int64(len(fieldsInput)))
-	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
-		FieldsFunc(fieldsInput, unicode.IsSpace)
+	for _, sd := range stringdata {
+		b.Run(sd.name, func(b *testing.B) {
+			for j := 1 << 4; j <= 1<<20; j <<= 4 {
+				b.Run(fmt.Sprintf("%d", j), func(b *testing.B) {
+					b.ReportAllocs()
+					b.SetBytes(int64(j))
+					data := sd.data[:j]
+					for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+						FieldsFunc(data, unicode.IsSpace)
+					}
+				})
+			}
+		})
 	}
 }