Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy were unimpressed by the ‘gift’ an overexuberant fan threw at them as they waited to tee off on the sixth hole. Photo: AFP

Unwanted gift: Rory McIlroy and Ricky Fowler dodge bizarre present thrown by excited spectator

Playing partners forced to dodge a golf ball with an earplug attached to it thrown at them at the Wells Fargo Championship

Associated Press

Published: 10:16am, 6 May 2016

Why you can trust SCMP

As if battling a rain-soaked course and gusting winds weren’t difficult enough, playing partners Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler also had to dodge a golf ball with an earplug attached to it at the Wells Fargo Championship.

So random. The guy tried to say it was a gift. I don’t know why you would give a gift of a golf ball with an earplug attached to it

Ricky Fowler

A spectator threw the object just after McIlroy hit his tee shot and Fowler was preparing to tee off on the sixth hole at Quail Hollow Club on Thursday.

Fowler said the ball flew by his left side. He didn’t know what it was until it stopped rolling.

“So random,” Fowler said. “The guy tried to say it was a gift. I don’t know why you would give a gift of a golf ball with an earplug attached to it.”

The fan was escorted from the course by police.

“Just it was one of those things,” McIlroy said. “It was a golf ball with an ear plug stuck on it, so it was sort of strange. Charlotte’s finest (police) sorted it out and got him off the property, thankfully.”

Fowler hits a shot on the 15th hole as McIlroy watches on. Photo: AFP

Fowler finished the round with a 1-under par 71, five shots behind the early leader Anirban Lahiri of India. McIlroy struggled early, reaching 4-over par before finishing with a 73, leaving him seven shots back.

Jim Furyk back from injury as Rory McIlroy defends his title at Quail Hollow

McIlroy wound up with a birdie on the 250-yard par 3, while Fowler and the other member of their threesome, Hideki Matsuyama, carded 3s.

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