The week’s feel-good moment? A 103-year-old meets her crush, Rickie Fowler
Rickie Fowler hits his tee shot on Friday on the 6th hole at Olympia Fields.
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Well done, everybody.
Well done, “Grandma Susie.” She’s Susan Cichon, and 16 News Now out of South Bend, Indiana, did a short feature on her here. She’s 103 years old and lives in LaPorte, Indiana, which is about an hour east of Chicago. She’s the biggest golf fan. Her favorite pro is Rickie Fowler. On Wednesday, she went to her first PGA Tour event, at Olympia Fields, host of this week’s BMW Championship.
Well done, Tour folks and Grandma Susie family. Three years ago, when she turned 100, they all arranged for a dozen players — Fowler, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Francesco Molinari, Dustin Johnson, Billy Horschel, Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Gary Woodland, Patrick Reed and Jon Rahm — to sing her Happy Birthday over a video. You can and should watch that here. This week, they brought her out.
Well done, Tour social media gang. They recorded on Wednesday and shared on Friday a five-and-a-minute clip of Grandma Susie’s day. It has all the feels.
Well done, Morikawa. He was the first person to greet Grandma Susie in the video. He adjusted well when he started this exchange:
“Now, we’re 103?”
“One-hundred-three. Oh, you didn’t know I was that old?”
“You didn’t look it. Not a day over 27.”
Well done, McIlroy. In the video, he was doing a TV shot when Grandma Susie called out to him and waved, and he waved back. He walked over and started this exchange:
“I hear you’re a big Rickie fan. I love Rickie. Rickie’s a good guy.”
“But I follow you, and I’m happy. And I hope that you’ll be way up there, too, in this tournament.”
“I hope so. That would be nice.”
“I’m going to be extra happy when I see your name.”
“Thank you so much.”
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“So play good.”
Well done, Fleetwood. In the video, he greeted Grandma Susie next. This exchange, started by her, was golden:
“12 of you … wished me a happy birthday when I was 100.”
“Was mine your favorite?”
“Well, my favorite is Rickie.”
“Who’s your second-favorite golfer?”
“Second favorite? How about Tommy Fleetwood?”
“You weren’t going to say that.”
Well done, Fowler. Of course. At this point, you must watch the video, which is below. We’ll wait.
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“It was great to come full circle because we had sent her a couple birthday videos the past couple years, so for her to be able to come out and spend a little time with her was awesome,” Fowler said Friday, after he shot a one-under 69 to sit five strokes of leader Max Homa at the halfway point.
“Yeah, she had told me she was hoping I got off to a good start and be in the top five. I need her to keep pushing me because we accomplished that and took care of that yesterday for her. Hopefully we can give her some more to watch this weekend.”
Well done, everybody.
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