{"id":436042,"date":"2025-07-28T03:01:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=436042"},"modified":"2025-07-28T03:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T03:01:38","slug":"rickie-fowler-explains-black-ribbons-at-3m-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rickie-fowler-explains-black-ribbons-at-3m-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Rickie Fowler Explains Black Ribbons At 3M Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the 3M Open in Minnesota, fans and players are still coming down from the excitement of The Open the previous week<\/a>.\u00a0 Max Homa experienced a rush of excitement and pressure<\/a> to win as he is about to be a father of two.\u00a0 However, during the tournament, there was a bit of a more solemn feeling.\u00a0 Some players were wearing black ribbons with the initials “KH” on them in plain view.\u00a0 Rickie Fowler has explained that the ribbons were to honor Kayla Hale, the wife of Oddessey representative Cody Hale, who passed recently after a long battle with cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hales And Their Pro Golf Relations<\/span><\/h2>\n

Cody Hale, representing an equipment manufacturer, has numerous personal relationships with professional players.\u00a0 He would often get in touch with players to find them putters that best suit them, a task that can be difficult<\/a>.\u00a0 Hale would often start a friendship around golf, sharing tips and the like.\u00a0 He may have represented a specific putter company, but the players didn\u2019t always land on an Odyssey putter.\u00a0 The players just liked the company of Cody Hale and would bond over the sport.\u00a0 Many felt like the Hales were \u201cpart of the family,\u201d as Fowler put it.\u00a0 Although he hasn\u2019t played professionally since 2012, Cody Hale is often right behind the players, offering them help whenever possible.\u00a0 When Hale\u2019s family is hurting, the players feel like it is their family too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rickie Fowler On The Ribbons<\/span><\/h2>\n

The players have a great amount of respect for the Hales.\u00a0 When they heard that Kayla Hale lost the battle to cancer, they felt like an important part of their lives was gone.\u00a0 They decided it was appropriate to honor her in some way during the tournament.\u00a0 They did so by donning the black ribbon.\u00a0 Rickie Fowler explained in an interview<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Great guy, and this is,\u201d Fowler said, referring to the ribbon.\u00a0 \u201cHis wife was battling cancer for a while and was in remission, but it popped back up, and she unfortunately passed.\u00a0 I guess about a week and a half ago now.\u00a0 So he’s someone that’s… Cody’s part of the family out here, and when you’re part of the family, their family’s part of the family, too.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Like many who befriended the Hales, Fowler has used an Odyssey putter in the past.\u00a0 Although he hasn\u2019t used it much, that didn\u2019t change his feelings towards the Hales.\u00a0 Other players felt the same way, as many sported the ribbon to honor Kayla Hales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cody Hales Going Forward<\/span><\/h2>\n

Cody Hale couldn\u2019t make it to the 3M Open this weekend for various reasons.\u00a0 He has taken time off to focus on his grieving family.\u00a0 Currently, Hale is spending time with his two kids, who are two and four years old.\u00a0 Players have also contributed to a GoFundMe for the family, as a way to ease the burden of having lost a loved one.\u00a0 With players like Rickie Fowler grieving and honoring Kayla with Cody Hale, he won\u2019t need to feel alone in the process.\u00a0 The players will not forget about the Hales anytime soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Matt Krohn-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the 3M Open in Minnesota, fans and players are still coming down from the excitement of The Open the previous week.\u00a0 Max Homa experienced a rush of excitement and pressure to win as he is about to be a father of two.\u00a0 However, during the tournament, there was a bit of a more solemn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":436043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[8156,74],"class_list":["post-436042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-3m-open","tag-rickie-fowler"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436042"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436046,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436042\/revisions\/436046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}