Story behind fan's viral moment with Tiger Woods
The man behind the t-shirt that made the unflappable Tiger Woods chuckle during The Players Championship in Florida on Saturday said it was the best $20 he ever spent.
Thomas Wesling, a graduate from Eisenhower University, bought the $20 t-shirt with Tiger Woods’ 2017 DUI mugshot on it last year.
As a huge fan of Woods, Wesling decided to position himself between the green on the 17th hole and the tee box for the 18th to see if he could get the golfer’s attention and draw a “priceless” reaction.
“I bought the shirt right when Tiger won last year (at the Tour Championship in September),” Wesling told the Journals Sentinel.
“I’m a huge Tiger fan, I love Tiger, so thinking about it I was like, ‘I need to wear it.’ I knew if I could get any reaction out of it from him, it’d be priceless.”
The shirt worked as footage shows Woods smiling as he walked past Wesling.
I had Tiger reminiscing about his glory days #THEPLAYERS pic.twitter.com/xsvJQNXBwj
— Thomas Wesling (@ThomasWesling23) March 16, 2019
The video has now gone viral with more than one million views on Twitter.
Wesling said many other golfers had also laughed at the shirt, which surprised the graduate.
While Wesling plans to watch Woods in the future – potentially at the Ryder Cup – he will opt for a different t-shirt next time.
“It’s the best 20 bucks I’ve ever spent,” he said. “Getting a laugh from Tiger is something I won’t forget, but maybe I’ll go with a different shirt next time.”