Rickie Fowler’s mom dashed back from the airport just in time to see him win The Players

Rickie Fowler got to spend some of Mother’s Day with his mom, Lynne, on Sunday but she needed an unplanned dash back from the airport in order to be there for the end of the best day of his career.

Fowler played well all week at The Players, but his Sunday round had stalled out on a crowded leaderboard. He spent much of his day out of view of the NBC cameras, just playing out the final round several shots back from the lead. So with Rickie five shots back and just an hour or so left in his round, his mom and his sister decided to head to the airport and catch a scheduled commercial flight out of town (via Jason Sobel/ESPN):

“The whole thing, the pieces just weren’t falling into place,” she said of his title contention. “It was just another day, same routine.”

It wasn’t that big a gamble -- Rickie had just six holes to play to make up five shots and there were plenty of world class players between his score and the lead.

Then he lit TPC Sawgrass on fire and made history for the best finish ever at The Players. His mom, however, had already checked in for her flight. NBC’s Dan Hicks relayed on the broadcast that they had checked their bags and were getting set to depart when a text came in that Rickie had eagled the 16th and was now just a shot off the lead.

So Rickie’s mom called an audible after his birdie in regulation on the 17th and they decided to make a sprint back from the airport in a courtesy car. His sister drove the 45 minutes and they got in just in time to watch the three-hole aggregate playoff from a scoring area, according to Sobel.

For the sudden death playoff with Kevin Kisner, however, they had to make their way back to the coliseum atmosphere surrounding the island 17th hole. It was there that his mom got to witness the shot that would win it, an incredible ball into the island green just 3 feet from the flagstick.

★★★

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