The Loop

Thomas Pieters says PGA Tour altered his headshot, provides proof (UPDATE: PGA Tour responds)

January 27, 2016

This is an odd one, folks. Thomas Pieters is a rising star from Belgium, a former NCAA individual champion whose name should ring a bell following his runner-up to Rickie Fowler at last week's Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. And on Tuesday, Pieters pointed out that something was off about his PGA Tour profile photo -- specifically, that his curly hair was, well, off. See for yourself:

Gotta say, "#WhereAreMyCurls" is one of the best hashtags we've ever seen. Of course, it's also one of the most unexpected.

We've reached out to the PGA Tour for comment.

UPDATE: Here is a statement from Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour's Chief Marketing Officer:

"In the standard process of prepping new headshots for broadcast TV, electronic scoreboards and other uses - which always requires a bit of retouching and color-correction - our vendor was a bit too heavy-handed in the editing of Thomas Pieters' photo. The image has been returned more closely to the original photo - although some editing is always required - and reissued to our database. We regret this sequence of events and meant no disrespect to Thomas. We think he has a great head of hair."