PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. _ Rickie Fowler looked in vain along the right side of the 18th fairway during Saturday's third round of the Players Championship.
His throng of fans joined him.
The impromptu search party finally turned skyward to find Fowler's golf ball. Incredibly, the missing Titleist was lodged in a live oak.
"You play golf long enough you're going to see a ball get stuck in a tree," Fowler said. "A good way to look at it is at least we identified it."
Finding the ball saved Fowler a long walk back to the tee box to hit again, but certainly was not his salvation.
After taking a drop, Fowler punched his third shot into the water on his way to a triple bogey, dropping him from 3-under par round to even par for the week.
"A little bit of a tough way to finish," the 2015 Players champion said.
But Fowler's misfortune made the day of a young fan who was given the ball after someone knocked it from the tree with a tennis shoe.
The fan-friendly Fowler later signed the ball for the 9-year-old.
