By Frank Pingue
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) -Jon Rahm surged into contention at the PGA Championship with a brilliant third round on Saturday but the Spaniard said he might have fared even better had the fan he accidentally struck in the head with a golf ball been skilled at soccer.
Rahm’s approach shot at the par-four 11th was offline and struck a man who appeared to duck just as the ball ricocheted off him and raced right across the putting surface and into the rough from where the Spaniard made bogey.
By the time Rahm reached the man, who was smiling and did not appear to be injured, the two-times major champion joked that some header skills could have come in handy.
“I told him, if he was European and grew up playing soccer, football, and he just aimed a little bit better, maybe just get it closer to the hole,” said Rahm.
The two-time major champion said as he was walked toward the green he told his caddie to get a Sharpie ready as he was prepared to sign one of his golf gloves as a parting gift to the man for taking a ball off the head.
“His response was, ‘That may not be enough,'” Rahm said of his caddie’s reaction. “I’m like, I don’t know what else you want me to give him, right. We were kind of sorting through things between golf clubs and golf balls.”
The encounter ended up being a light-hearted one as Rahm checked in on the man, gave him a hug and a signed golf ball for his troubles.
“Sometimes when that happens and they’re not hurt, they are so excited because they know we are going to go there and just have a five-minute conversation, and yeah, he took it great and he was a great sport about it,” said Rahm.
Rahm carded a four-under-par 67 that brought him to six under on the week. He will start Sunday’s final round five shots back of leader Scottie Scheffler.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue, editing by Deepa Babington)
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