It was a bizarre round for Jordan Spieth at the Players Championship on Friday.
With two birdies to go, followed by seven lost strokes over the next 15 holes, the 29-year-old golfer saved his strangest shot for last.
When Spieth’s No. 9 tee shot appeared to be heading toward the water, it instead hit a fan, stayed on the fairway, and was eventually able to chase him to the hole.
The game gave Spieth a tie for two rounds, one stroke above the projected cut line, allowing him to compete this weekend.
Analyzing a replay of the shot, broadcast commentators said the ball appeared to hit the fan in the knee, and it completed “a 90-degree detour” that ended with Spieth perfectly positioned on the fairway.
A video tweeted by the PGA Tour later showed Spieth handing one of his gloves to the fanwho then turned and tried to give his new possession to a child standing next to him.
“I was extremely lucky at No. 9 or I wouldn’t be playing this weekend,” Spieth told reporters after his round. “So trying to get that guy’s information and literally see what he wants this weekend because from now on everything is because it hit him.”
Spieth, who started on hole 10 on Friday, started with a pair of birdies on his first two holes.
Three bogeys and two double bogeys followed, and Spieth didn’t finish another hole under par until that crucial number 9.
Instead of finishing the round 5-under or worse, Spieth saved two strokes with an eagle putt to finish 3-under.
He is currently tied for 44th, nine strokes behind leader Chad Ramey – a 30-year-old in his first Players Championship – as of Friday afternoon.
Spieth hit a 3-under on Thursday to open the tournament.
The world’s No. 15 golfer, according to the World Golf Rankings, recently tied for fourth and sixth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Waste Management Phoenix Open, respectively, with a missed cut sandwiched between those tournaments.
“Very happy,” said Spieth on Friday. “I can’t say I deserved it, but I tried to keep my attitude together and just keep focusing on trying to put one foot in front of the other. I don’t know if that means I got rewarded for that or what, but overall I was very, very lucky at 9.”
