PGA Tour veteran Rickie Fowler had a confrontation with a golf fan during the third round of The Players Championship on Saturday afternoon. Fowler was ready to tee up on the par-5 16th hole, where he was 1-over on the tournament at the time. But, when he made contact, an awkward one-handed finish showed on the broadcast and he immediately fired his finger at someone in the gallery to his right.
“What are you doing?” Fowler’s caddie, Ricky Romano, said as well. There was allegedly an issue with the individual’s phone going off, to which Romano said to shut it off multiple times before Fowler stepped up to the tee.
However, the individual clearly did not silence the phone and Fowler heard it as he was going to swing. Of course, golf etiquette calls for silence when a player swings their club.
Luckily for Fowler, his tee shot on the 523-yard landed on the fairway. But he continued to speak with the individual as the broadcast showed the ball land in the short stuff.
But Fowler ended up double-bogeying the 16th hole, shooting a seven which could get him to 4-over for the round. That’s the way things ended, as Fowler shot 1-over on the front nine and 3-over on the back after going bogey, bogey, birdie, double bogey from holes 13-16.
Fowler’s tournament started off with a 2-over on Thursday after bogeying his final two holes of his round. But he appeared to be back on track when he shot a 3-under 69 in round two to make the cut and be under par heading into the weekend.
Fowler, 35, is no stranger to reacting to stuff happening in the gallery, as he infamously shrugged at one bystander who commented, “What are you doing?” when he left a putt short during a past tournament.
That situation led to a bellow of laughter from the crowd, but this moment was one that created a tense atmosphere at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
