Fowler flips his hat backwards during pressers
For the second time in a month, Rickie Fowler was berated for an absolutely unforgivable crime of wearing his hat backwards. Fowler turns his hat around during interviews so people can see his face better, along with the logo to his website embroidered on the back. He’s not trying to be a trouble-making punk. In fact, he’s quite the opposite and known for being one of the most well-mannered players on the PGA Tour.
With his shirt untucked and hat flipped around, Rickie Fowler had just finished working out in the fitness trailer at Quail Hollow on Wednesday. While he was in the parking lot, a member approached him and informed him of the club’s dress code.
I ran into him near the valet and jokingly called him a trouble-maker. “It happened just right there,” he said, pointing to an area off to the side. “I was standing right there with a group of caddies and some players.”
As the 22-year-old relayed the story, he tried to hide his bewilderment by the whole incident.
“[The member] came up to me and said, ‘Our hat policy is the same as Augusta’s. Turn your hat around.’”
Whoa, that seems a little unnecessary to bring up Augusta and humiliate him in front of his peers. Mark Wilson was the only other person besides myself in the vicinity as Fowler recounted the story on Friday, and our jaws dropped simultaneously (figuratively).
“Wow, he really said that?” asked a surprised Wilson.
During his presser at Augusta for the Masters, Fowler walked in the room sporting his hat backwards per usual. A green coat member moderating the interview immediately asked him to turn it forward. According to Golfweek‘s Jim McCabe, Fowler said he wanted people to see his face. The green coat wasn’t amused and requested a second time. Fowler complied.
Unlike at the Masters, the members run the tournament and everyone is expected to follow their rigid, outdated rules, but it’s their club. On the other hand, while it’s Quail Hollow’s policy, the Wells Fargo Championship is a PGA Tour event, where the club gives the Tour permission to take over for a week.
Regardless, Fowler quickly complied to the Quail Hollow member’s request, but he admitted being caught off-guard.
“I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not at first,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to cause a scene, so I just turned it around.”
And we wonder why golf has such an uptight and stuffy image that repels (and repulses) the non-golfing masses. Aside from Tiger and Phil, Fowler is the biggest draw to the game right now. This week if you venture to the kids’ play area, there are dozens sporting flat-brimmed PUMA hats — just like Rickie’s.
May 8th, 2011 on 3:49 pm
Quail Hollow really has to get over its obsession with Augusta. It sort of made sense for the request to be made at the Masters as it was during a press conference. This Quail member with Augusta envy needs to realize he shouldn’t pester players in the parking lot. It is great to see that Rickie was polite enough to comply with this outrageous request, but he wouldn’t have been well within his rights to laugh the guy off and keep his backwards.
QH does about as good a job replicating ANGC as any place I have seen, but it would be great if they took themselves less seriously. This is a run of the mill tour event with a Monday qualifier attached to it, that right there is reason enough to lose the vanity.
May 8th, 2011 on 4:04 pm
So sick of conformity on tour. Celebrate being different, even when its something you personally don’t approve of. If we berate someone every time they do something one (or many) people don’t like*, we deserve mindless drones. The limit – putting fans in danger and nudity (that mean’s you JD)
*except slow play, everyone can berate slow play
May 8th, 2011 on 4:09 pm
Oh in honor of Sabbo, physically threatening anyone, and verbally assaulting anyone but yourself also not cool
May 8th, 2011 on 4:14 pm
wow, hat police. they’re everywhere.
glad you mentioned the website, though, because if he really just wanted people to see his face, seems like he could just take the hat off all together.
May 8th, 2011 on 5:06 pm
If it’s a club rule, everyone who plays there should respect that & abide by the rule. Similarly, I’ve often thought the LPGA short skirts & shorts should not be permitted at a club where the members have strict guidelines on the required length of their apparel.
May 8th, 2011 on 5:48 pm
In the parking lot is a joke. Clubhouse is a different story. Rickie is a classy kid. Member is an idiot.
May 8th, 2011 on 6:03 pm
+1,000,000 points to Shoshana’s comment.
A) Professional golf is a performance art.
B) Life is about art is about being interesting.
C) Golf, life, and performance art are far more entertaining when we’re watching HUMAN BEINGS with STYLE and CHARACTER.
D) Conformity is the antithesis of style and character.
E) To any old fogey who thinks backward-cap means gangsta, y’all be living about 20 years in the past. All the gangstas are wearing wide-brimmed hats forward these days.
May 8th, 2011 on 6:13 pm
With the face Rickie has, he should wear is hat with the bill forward. In fact he should get an even bigger hat so we don’t have to see his face at all.
May 8th, 2011 on 6:13 pm
Kudos to the member. Don’t like rules? Go home.
What’s next? Will someone will have their website printed on their underwear to try to justify looking like a fool with their pants on the ground.
May 8th, 2011 on 6:46 pm
Rickie looks like a fool? Well, Divot, to paraphrase the Big Lebowski: That’s just, like… your opinion, man. Thou shalt refer to Shoshana’s 11th commandment: “Celebrate being different, even when its something you personally don’t approve of.”
May 8th, 2011 on 6:51 pm
Players should just be taking off their hats before press conferences. After all, they are conducted inside. Tour pros seem to know enough to remove their cap when shaking hands after the round, but can’t be bothered to remove it when walking inside for the press sit-down. I understand that sponsors probably want the extra logo exposure, but how many people ar actually watching the video from the Q and As anyways?
May 8th, 2011 on 7:06 pm
@Chris, if you’re Tiger Woods, and video from your Q&A generally gets shown on sportscenter, that’s a whole lot of eyeballs.
@Divot, why should you get to decide what is proper attire? We all disagree on lots of different things. So rather then telling people how to act, let them all be different and then root for whom you like
@Jay
May 8th, 2011 on 7:46 pm
@Cyndalooski – ok, you can come down on backwards wearing hats – but when you want to ban short skirts at the LPGA, you are crossing the line into facism, authoritarianism and various other isms that should not be tolerated here in the USA. To follow up on @Jay’s Lebowski quote, “We fought and died in the muck of Vietnam for them”, which I am sure included the right of (only attractive) LPGA’ers to wear short skirts/skorts.
May 8th, 2011 on 8:00 pm
Funny that people who rushed to the defense of Augusta National for being a private club and therefore should not be pressured into accepting female members are now calling clubs who try to observe their dress codes to be backward and needing to lighten up.
May 8th, 2011 on 8:53 pm
@Brian S…the skirt/shorts length is an actual rule at many private clubs just as the backwards hat is. I agree they are stupid rules. My point is that pros shouldn’t be treated any differently than dues paying members. A rule for one should be a rule for all.
May 8th, 2011 on 9:29 pm
Pros are already treated differently from members. I’m guessing members at Quail Hollow are allowed to wear shorts during a round. Tour players? Not so much. If the members have a problem with it, they should advise the tour as to what they feel the dress code should be before the event, and let the tour enforce it.
Club members give up their course for the week when the tour comes to town. They should also give up their right to enforce the dress code and allow the Tour folks to do their job for the week.
May 8th, 2011 on 10:34 pm
First, Ricky did right to not “make a big deal”. But the members pay for the club to run and if they have a club rule they want to enforce then that is WELL within their rights. I personally think he should leave his hat with the bill forward, but that is my opinion.
@Shoshana…most clubs decide what is appropriate attire, pretty plain and simple. Every course has SOME sort of rules but all aren’t the same. I think RF makes enough of a statement with the clothes he wears and doesn’t need to turn his lid around. Arnold Palmer got onto him about his hat(and club rules) last year at Bay Hill, so this is nothing new.
May 8th, 2011 on 10:39 pm
@docsbro: are they well within their rights to tell a tour member what to do during the week that the tour controls the course? you are right that rickie did well just to comply, but it doesn’t mean the member was within his rights. if the club wants to start their own tournament the members would obviously have the power to enforce stodgy rules as they please. as of now they rent their course to an organization that puts on an event and should be prepared for slight differences in policy as a result.
May 8th, 2011 on 11:01 pm
I’m pretty sure qh also has the rule that you can’t wear non golf logos, if they applied that rule 75 percent of the field wouldn’t be allowed to play there, so why pick on the hat rule???
May 8th, 2011 on 11:16 pm
Now if only someone would call him out on his stupid outfits, oversized buckles, and hat pulled over his ears…. But seriously, this incident is stupid. Brings to mind something that happened to me once. Several years back I was at local course where I live, nothing special, semi private, around $40 daily fee. I meet my foursome there one morning, pay my money, and head to the first tee. The starter there comes over and says that he is going to let me slide for not wearing a collared shirt. I look at him with a look of bewilderment and look down at my shirt. I’m wearing an Adidas Climalite mock-turtleneck, fifty bucks at the golf store, 60 bucks in the pro shop of the freaking course I’m at. Not wanting to make a scene so early in the day, I decide not to rip him a new one, but instead kindly inform him that if Mickelson can wear a mock neck at Augusta, I think that it won’t damage his goat track’s reputation too much if they let me wear one.
May 8th, 2011 on 11:16 pm
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Background. Johnny Harris owns/runs Quail Hollow. Johnny’s father was a member at Augusta. Johnny is a member at Augusta. Johnny is one of the senior most members at Augusta. Look for a guy in the Green coat marking hole positions for the Masters, that will be Johnny.
Quail Hollow, Champions and Muirfield have the most Augusta DNA of any clubs in the country.
While I don’t really think it was necessary for this member to say anything to Rickie, I also think it wouldn’t have been a bad idea for Ricky to tuck in his shirt and keep his hat on straight. And I doubt that if Jack or Jackie had similarly straightened Rickie on their grounds anyone would be making a big deal of it.
All the naysayers above, if I took you to Quail Hollow as a guest you damn sure wouldn’t saunter up with your shirt out and hat on backwards, would you?
Do the research Steph, get an idea about where you are.
May 8th, 2011 on 11:24 pm
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PS…you can rest assured that Johnny Harris does not EVER give ANYONE permission “to take over for a week” at Quail Hollow — NEVER! EVER!!
May 8th, 2011 on 11:32 pm
d.t.f.: i think that is kind of the point (at least it was my point). everyone knows about mr. harris and his impact. it is just funny that he thinks he is still on augusta’s grounds when he is at quail. it is a GREAT facility, but the augusta copying becomes a bit much at times. EVERY member at augusta is a big shot, but many are very laid back at their other clubs. i have worked at clubs that have had augusta members and they weren’t stuffy in the least when they were at their other facilities. this just smells of trying WAY to hard in my opinion.
May 8th, 2011 on 11:41 pm
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I disagree kr1. I have found Quail Hollow and staff to be completely accommodating and friendly. Johnny ain’t copying nothing, he’s just running it as he sees fit and as he was raised.
Quail probably has as many Augusta members as any other club in the country and on average they are no different than the “laid back” guys you are used to seeing other places.
Don’t judge the whole place by the actions of one member….one that I’d be is NOT one of the Augusta guys. And if Johnny has his druthers I’d guarantee you that he’d prefer that this situation had not happened.
Are you aware that every other year Quail agrees to lend out the course for the Charlotte City Amateur — free of charge? One and only one person makes that decision, Johnny. That ain’t happening for the Augusta City Am.
May 8th, 2011 on 11:42 pm
Clarification: they lend it out for 1 day of a 3 day event. The tourney moves to a different course every day.
May 9th, 2011 on 12:11 am
d.t.f. that is good to hear. i did not realize that part of the city am takes place at quail.
May 9th, 2011 on 12:55 am
… and to synthesize these revelations about Quail Hollow’s pedigree with the original topic of this thread… why exactly are we supposed to be impressed about Johnny Mathis’ ties to Augusta? It’s a privilege for these clubs to host a PGA TOUR event. Way more of a privilege than it is for the PGA TOUR to play at any particular club. Far be it from the club members (or club president, or anyone at the club) to start enforcing arcane and arbitrary dress codes on visiting professionals.
May 9th, 2011 on 7:53 am
@Jay, the PGA Tour is the privileged one, NOT the golf course. It’s not always a great experience to host the events. Look, the players are the ones being given the privilege of playing at these facilities. The reality is QH is the reason that has become a VERY popular tournament and on of the top NON major events of the year. If Rickie doesn’t want to play by the club rules…then don’t come. The event would not miss him and that’s a fact.
May 9th, 2011 on 11:00 am
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@ Jay, “arcane and arbitrary”…?!? Are you seriously suggesting that at a private country club you find it unexpected that one should keep their shirt tucked in and their hat on straight? You must not get many invites to nice places and I can understand why.
May 9th, 2011 on 11:49 am
Depends what you mean by nice places. I’ve never been somewhere the calibre of Quail Hollow. But I did grow up in what can only be called country-club culture, playing courses with similar dress codes. (Though not with the hat rule — nobody’s ever told me to wear my hat a particular way. I usually wear berets, or sometimes “driver’s caps” on backwards, Per-Ulrik Johansson style [remember him?])
Which makes me curious: Would Johansson have been chided for his backwardness as well? http://www.golferen.no/photoalbum/view4/L3Rvb2xzL3Bob3RvYWxidW1fdmlldy9jdXN0b21lci9pbWcvMzUyL2Jhbm5lcjQ2OC8zNTIyMS5qcGcvQ3JvcC8_eD00Jnk9MiZ3aWR0aD00NjAmaGVpZ2h0PTMwOA
Just because I grew up in this culture doesn’t mean I like it. They praise “character” and “decorum” and “manners” and enforce dress codes which are supposed to be represent these ideals. Unfortunately, the dress codes become stand-ins FOR the ideals. So you end up kicking back with a bunch of priggish but nattily-attired assholes. With the bills of their baseball-caps kept strictly perpendicular to their noses, thank you very much.
I remember Cejka wearing his cap backwards on TOUR (yes, while playing) for a while. There was also a young colourful Englishman who seemed promising back in the early ’90s — John E. Morgan — who regularly wore his cap backwards while playing.
My view is that if QH (or any club) wants a no-hats inside the clubhouse policy, fine. But getting into the nitty-gritti of dictating to visiting professionals what KIND of hats they can wear, or which direction the bill must be facing, is absurd. Hatgate may be a minor dust-up, but it encapsulates a more serious human issue, which is the crippling tendency of our species towards conformity at the expense of innovation.
And to those say, “well, it’s in the club’s rights to enforce their policy!” I’d like to question whether it actually is. Refer to WUP’s original comment about them contractually allowing the TOUR to run the show for the weekend.
May 9th, 2011 on 11:57 am
@docsbro – There’s another perspective to be offered here. For most fans, I would argue, the main draw of watching a PGA TOUR event is the competition, not the course. Professional golf is popular because of its stars. Fans would rather watch Tiger vs. Phil at the local muni than you vs. me at Pine Valley. I’m sure the players do appreciate the chance to play high-quality courses. But don’t think it’s not a privilege for the club, too – much of a club’s prestige comes from being able to say they’ve hosted a TOUR event! How about this re-write of your final sentence: If the club doesn’t want to accommodate TOUR codes, then they can schedule their own tournament, Augusta-style. As for Augusta’s Hatgate, I thought it was ridiculous of that greencoat to whine like that, but I had no policy objections — it’s an anomalous once-a-year event, a tradition unlike any other, and a privately-run affair. Whereas this is a run-of-the-mill TOUR event, regardless of how high-quality the course and the field may be.
May 9th, 2011 on 12:03 pm
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Good luck Jay, you are going to need it.
May 9th, 2011 on 12:59 pm
@Jay you make some good points. Augusta is Augusta and there are very few like it and NONE that get played regularly. I also would not call it “being whiny” to ask him to follow the rules of the club. My guess(just a guess) would be they actually have a no hat policy in the club house that they loosen for players sponsorships.
I don’t like the hat backwards(probably because I am getting old)….
May 9th, 2011 on 2:39 pm
Turn your hat around….you’re playing golf…not riding a skate board so act like and dress like a gentleman.
May 9th, 2011 on 2:41 pm
while I am all about respect for the game, this is why new, young players are not joining the sport. Outdated and old school rules like this will drive away the youth when what we should be doing is figuring out ways to bring them into the fold, make them more comfortable with the traditions and be encouraging that the world changes and everyone needs to evolve with it. In years to come, when many of the high end membership clubs don’t have people who want these rules or the money to pay for it, they’ll be chasing this reversed hat wearing rich kid with as much gusto that they went after him in the parking lot. shame on them for such an off-putting approach which in the end just hurts the game of golf…
May 9th, 2011 on 3:15 pm
You can argue the merits of the rules at private clubs, but the guy who asked Fowler to turn his hat around had no right to do so, in this case. If Fowler had said no, there would’ve been NO consequences for him, regardless of what QH ownership said.
Private clubs can set and enforce their rules, but there always seems to me to be an air of superiority to them that is completely misguided. Wearing your hat forward at a golf course doesn’t make you a better, more respectful person.
@docsbro It might be a “privilege” for the players to play these courses, but let’s not pretend like it’s not a BIG deal to the clubs. Some of them even changed their precious rules to allow women, blacks and Jews (oh, the humanity!) to become members so they could keep or attract events. Anyone remember Shoal Creek?
May 9th, 2011 on 3:55 pm
Some people just don’t like progress, and my remembrance of the South was their still fighting the Civil War. I wish the member would step and ID himself, so golf fans around the world get a look at a person living in a civilization that is and has been gone with the wind.
May 9th, 2011 on 4:38 pm
hey. no way man. don’t nobody need to do anything about them LPGA short skirts.
May 9th, 2011 on 5:01 pm
@Sirnick that is ridiculous!! We are not ALL still fighting the civil war. Progress has nothing to do with it. Look he is not the first person to turn his hat around, he is not the first golfer to wear funky clothes even. It just happens that the tour gets a lot more coverage now and therefore we see his face more…actually probably more than he deserves. Lets not pretend that he is more than he is. He has nowhere near enough “street cred” (for all you kids out here) to NOT do what a member asks him.
@knottypine…sure there are golf courses that have made adjustments to their rules and some that have not (see Cypress Point and Augusta). Their are plenty of courses where membership became fed up with the tour coming through as well. But lets be clear the course at Quail Hollow is why they get a world class field. Sponsors also want the tournament and good courses and not some scrub muni that you and I can play every day….
May 9th, 2011 on 7:18 pm
If ricky was coming out of the fitness trailer, I’m surprised the hat was the only thing wardrove out of order. I saw zach johnson in the crowd on sunday wearing a t-shirt.
Rules are rules. As a new member of Olympic, I get it, eventhough it can take getting used to…. But the timing and selection of what rule to enforce, what not to enforce, and when to be vigilant and when to be understanding… If you follow all the details, this just seems a bit contrived on that Quail member’s part.
I would lay better than even money down that the member had heard of the Masters incident and only talked to fowler to try and prove a point. The point assumedly being that Quail was in the same league as Augusta. Which is not a horrible thing to do, but it’s also not really in the spirit of the rules either.
May 10th, 2011 on 8:57 am
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, I would have continued reading the comments but my eyes started bleeding from all of the ridiculous comments about a backwards hat.
Let’s remember all of these tour guys get paid, some a lot of money, by sponsors to wear that hat. And considering that they are working while on property or giving interviews during a tour event, they owe it to their sponsors to wear the hat they are paid to. I’m not sure of anybody that thinks tank tops are proper to wear anywhere for guys, but we don’t tell basketball players to change clothes during the game. It’s a uniform they are paid to wear. I say get over it.
July 14th, 2011 on 5:11 am
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April 2nd, 2012 on 3:30 pm
There is absolutly nothing wrong with a club having a dress policy and if a player such as Fowler wants to play there (and get rich) then the rules should be followed. Wearing his hat backwards in defiance of the rules is disrespectful. If Fowler wants to play with the men, he will have to act like one.