RORY MCILROY AND Rickie Fowler had to avoid a golf ball with an earplug attached thrown at them by a spectator on the opening day of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Fowler was beginning his swing on the par-three sixth hole when the ball came flying onto the tee box. The fan was caught by police and removed from the course.

Fowler was able to refocus and par the hole.

“I was getting ready to go up on the tee, and a ball flew over from the left side,” Fowler said.

“Didn’t really know what it was. It looked like a golf ball, something was attached to it, later finding out it was an earplug.

So random. The guy tried to say it was a gift. I don’t know why you would give a gift of a golf ball with an earplug attached to it.

“It was one of those things,” said McIlroy, who won by seven shots at Quail Hollow last year.

It was a golf ball with an ear plug stuck on it, so it was sort of strange. Charlotte’s finest (the police) sorted it out and got him off the property, thankfully.

It wasn’t the only wayward golf ball of the day for Fowler and McIlroy.

Fowler, the 2012 Wells Fargo winner, shot one-under par to tie for 30th. McIlroy, two-time winner of the event, finished on one-over to tie for 75th.

- © AFP 2016.

The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!

‘It’s not right any one player being targeted for one mistake he makes on a pitch’