Tree trouble derails Rickie Fowler’s round

PONTE VEDRA BEACH – 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.

When he stuffed his tee shot to a foot to set up a tap-in birdie on the par-3 17th, Perez was 7-under par on the day. A bogey due to an overly aggressive chip on the 18th hole was the only blemish on his scorecard and gave Dye’s course the last laugh.

“I still don’t feel like I won,” Perez said.

The 41-year-old tied for third at the 2006 Players — the last year the tournament was played in March. Since then, Perez has made five cuts and missed four.

Perez made the cut (2-over) on the number, but finished his day with the day’s low round and within five shots of the lead. But he did not suddenly feel like he was in contention.

“I played great, but the wind was down and tomorrow’s going to be just as hard, and I got all the same thoughts that I’ve had for 14 times here,” he said. “So I’m not really over excited about — it would be nice to have a chance and that kind of stuff, but it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go get it tomorrow.’ ”

Perez’s round, however, did change his travel plans. Since more than 78 players made the weekend, he worried he might miss the secondary cut.

“I thought I was going to be out of here early tomorrow or even tonight,” he said. “But now I got to change all that.”