When in Florida...
Rickie Fowler autographs kids’ foreheads as Players Championship gets off to totally normal start
While not a major itself, since its move to March several years ago, the Players Championship has heralded the unofficial start of golf’s slam season. Each spring, the sport’s best players gather at TPC Sawgrass to knock off the competitive cobwebs and the cauldron-like crowds have responded in kind, packing the Pete Dye design throughout the week. That has led to both a raucous atmosphere and also some bizarre scenes, like the one that unfolded Tuesday when 2015 Players champion Rickie Fowler was spotted signing autographs on a couple of young fans’ … foreheads?!
A few pint-sized patrons were standing there with their flags like normal autograph seeking children, but not these kids. They were like don’t sweat it, Rick. Just plant that John Hancock right here on my dome piece. Where were their parents, you might ask? God only knows. This is Florida.
As Golf Channel points out, this is a move straight out of the Ricky Bobby baby-signing playbook, which we suppose makes some sense coming from the only pro golfer to grow up racing motocross. Whether the support of The Youths propels Fowler to a second Players, or perhaps even a maiden major victory, remains to be seen, but if not, at least he picked up a few new fans along the way.
