Tiger Woods’ announcement that he will play in next week’s Valspar Championship (in addition to the following week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational) got golf fans – and NBC executives – in a tizzy on Friday. But the news wound up being a blow to fellow US PGA Tour pro Jonathan Randolph, who got bumped from having a guaranteed spot in the field to being the Tampa Bay Area event’s first alternate.
However, Randolph handled the situation better than expected. Turns out, he’s a huge Tiger fan as well.
The @TigerWoods effect is real….just got hip checked out of the field by the GOAT #ImNotEvenMad pic.twitter.com/U9luersZB6
— Jonathan Randolph (@JRandolph88) March 2, 2018
But Randolph, who had his best-ever US PGA Tour finish with a solo third at the Sanderson Farms Championship earlier this season, was in an even better mood a few hours later. When a couple of the event’s original commitments, including Patton Kizzire, pulled out, he was back in the tournament.
Boom!! Thanks @pkizzire…enjoy the week off but I’m headed south! Thanks everyone for the support! Number 143/144 let’s go!!! #NeverADoubt https://t.co/X7bN8GuRsb
— Jonathan Randolph (@JRandolph88) March 2, 2018
Kizzire happened to play with Woods the first two rounds at last week’s Honda Classic. We’d love to see Randolph’s reaction if he’s fortunate enough to get a similar pairing at Innisbrook next week.