Saturday 13 May 2017 22:50, UK
Rickie Fowler was involved in a bizarre incident on the final hole of his third round at The Players Championship when his ball became lodged in the branches of a tree.
Fowler was three under for the round, and the tournament, after he rolled in his sixth birdie at the 17th, but he bailed out too far right with his final tee shot and sent his ball towards the trees.
The spectators and marshals heard Fowler's ball clatter into the branches but did not see it drop to the ground. But, fortunately for the American, his ball was located and he was able to identify it without the need for him or his caddie to scale the tree.
Fowler was entitled to a drop, although he was unable to take advantage as he pulled his approach into the water hazard, and he would eventually sign off with an ugly triple-bogey seven which sent him plummeting back to level par.
"If you play golf long enough you're going to see a ball get stuck in a tree," said Fowler afterwards. "A good way to look at it is at least we identified it so you can play from there, instead of losing it and having to go back to the tee.
"I could drop up straight directly underneath the ball, two club lengths, which is basically just going to be a pitch out and hit on the green. With where I could drop it back in a straight line I had a clean lie and legitimately I knew I could get the ball on the green from there, which would have been great.
"But if the ball ends up coming out of the tree, I chip out and make five at worst. So, yeah, a little bit of a tough way to finish, giving away two shots there at least."
Meanwhile, world No 1 Dustin Johnson crashed out of contention after enduring a dreadful finish to his round, dropping five shots in as many holes as he slipped to two-over par.
Johnson was three under for the day after 12 holes, but he bogeyed the next two and then pushed his second to the long 16th into water and stumbled to a double-bogey seven.
He then three-putted the 17th green, and a par at the last completed a disappointing 74, while 2012 champion Matt Kuchar made a horrific quintuple-bogey nine at the 14th and also double-bogeyed 17 as an 81 left him bottom of the remaining field on nine over.
