Rickie Fowler is wearing a special pair of yellow Puma golf shoes at Aronimink Golf Club in the opening round of the 2018 BMW Championship. He's paying tribute to the late Jarrod Lyle, a man Fowler considers a good friend.
Golf Channel's Todd Lewis shared a picture of the shoes on Twitter on Thursday. The Puma golf shoes are in the same shade of yellow as the Titleist bucket hats Lyle wore as part of his third battle with acute myeloid leukemia, which ultimately claimed his life. The yellow color of the hats were similar to the color of Leuk the Duck, which is the mascot of Challenge, an Australian pediatric cancer charity Lyle supported since his initial diagnosis and bout with acute myeloid leukemia when he was 17 years old in 1998.
.@RickieFowler will be paying tribute to his late friend Jarrod Lyle today in the opening round of the @BMWchamps. He’s wearing custom shoes in Jarrod’s traditional yellow with the dates of his life on the tongue. pic.twitter.com/yaPN14vJIv
— Todd Lewis (@ToddLewisGC) September 6, 2018
The tongue of the shoes feature Lyle's birth date -- August 21, 1981 -- and the day he died -- August 8, 2018.
Fowler has used fashion to express love and admiration for various people over the years, including wearing special shoes in honor of Arnold Palmer in the two Arnold Palmer Invitationals since his passing in 2016.
In February at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Fowler wore a picture of Griffin Connell, a Scottsdale-area boy who passed away at age 7 from a complex airway disorder. Fowler had first met Connell at the tournament in 2013, and Connell had returned to the tournament in succeeding years to see his favorite player in the flesh.
One of Rickie Fowler's tattoos is also in memory of a loved one, with the first one he had done in honor of his late swing coach Barry McDonnell.
