Rickie Fowler involved in furious altercation with spectator before going into meltdown

This year’s Players Championship has been unfulfilling for Rickie Fowler, and tensions escalated on the 16th tee when the PGA Tour player struck out at a fan.

At the 16th tee in the third round of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, American Rickie Fowler let out his fury towards a spectator.

Although Fowler has not been at his best at TPC Sawgrass this week, he managed to make it to the weekend and was among the first players off in the third round on Saturday. With Fowler’s caddie Ricky Romano standing on the 16th tee at one over par for the competition, he urged spectators to turn off their phones.

Nevertheless, one fan in particular did not appear to follow through, and as Fowler striped his tee shot down the middle, he became enraged and confronted them.

Fowler exclaimed, pointing a finger toward the gallery, “You! How do you do this? “Come on, I just said something,” Romano said in front of his caddie. Then it seemed to completely throw Fowler off, because even though his drive split the fairway, disaster was on the way.

The 35-year-old’smomentwill be remembered as the PGA Tour player hit not one, but two shots from the fairway into the water on the right side of the hole. After two penalty drops, Fowler did show a flash of brilliance when he made his sixth shot that was just six inches from the hole.

After making a double bogey seven to finish the hole, Fowler ended his third round with two pars at the par-three 17th and par-four 18th. With 18 holes remaining in the tournament, the world No. 33 signed for a disappointing four-over-par 76, putting him at three over.

With his best finish coming in a tie for 35th at the Genesis Invitational last month, Fowler has failed to recapture the form that allowed him to win the golf championship in 2023. This year, he has made seven starts on the PGA Tour without finishing in the top-30. After finishing outside of the world’s top 100 at this time last year, the American quickly got back into form, winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic in June of last year for the first time in over four years.

Late last year, Fowler was heavily linked to joining Jon Rahm at LIV Golf; however, he chose to stick with the PGA Tour in spite of the allure of a massively lucrative contract. The American stifled any possibility of switching to Saudi Arabia by making a significant appearance in the recently released second season of Netflix’s Full Swing.

Although there are astounding sums of money available, Fowler stated to the Netflix cameras that winning PGA Tour championships is what drives him, saying, “[Joining LIV] wasn’t the best choice for me.” I play to compete against the greatest players in the world, not for financial gain, and I think the Tour is the greatest place to be. I’m interested in seeing it.