American golf star Jordan Spieth gave a fan a special gift after the spectator prevented his wayward shot at the 18th from going into water and saved his Players Championship appearance from ending prematurely.
Spieth was having a Players' Championship to forget after the opening two rounds and faced missing the cut approaching the final hole. Sitting at two-over par, the three-time major winner needed a birdie to save his weekend and make the projected cut of one-over.
A terrible tee shot saw the ball head right towards the water and the world No.14 thought his tournament was over. However, remarkably the ball hit the knee of spectator Matt Cutler before bouncing back onto the fairway.
"You've saved my weekend," said Spieth thanking the fan immediately after the incident. "I'd have missed the cut if it hadn't hit you. Whatever you want."
The stroke of luck impacted on Spieth's form and a good second shot set the American up for a perfect chip, resulting in an eagle, which crucially moved him to par and well above Friday's cut.
"I got an extremely lucky break," Spieth added. "Or wouldn’t be playing the weekend. Literally whatever he wants this weekend because everything from here on out is because it hit him.
“Needing to probably birdie to make the cut, I can’t really birdie having to drop it over in the right rough over there after hitting my third — it would have been a one-in-a-million make.
"Instead, I ended up making a three. A lot of times, I kind of feel bad about that and don’t focus on the next shot, but I hit a 3-wood exactly where I wanted to and hit a chip exactly where I wanted to, so I’m very happy about rebounding from that."
Spieth gave the fan, Marine Lt. Col. Cutler from Colorado, a glove straight after hitting the shot. However, he felt the spectator deserved something more, giving him and his friends tickets for the weekend and a signed flag.
"To Matt. Sorry & Thanks!,' Spieth wrote on the gifted flag. Talking about meeting the marine Spieth added: "I spent a little time with him yesterday. He didn't want anything, but I thought if I could do anything for him I'd try to and the tour stepped in and hooked him up, too. So hopefully he's having a good weekend.
"And his knee, I mean, once I found out he was an active Marine I don't really think getting hit in the knee really does much to those guys."
A third round of six-under helped Spieth to a finishing position of joint 19th on -6, earning him £227,000 in prize money. Scottie Scheffler won the tournament finishing on -17 five shots ahead of his nearest rival to scoop the £3.72million top prize and regain the world No.1 ranking.
