Golfing shirtless. Jumping off a house’s second-story railing into the marina. Funky poses in funky headgear.
The horseplay and high jinks chronicled on Snapchat during a spring break trip to the Bahamas seemed more fitting of a fraternity getaway than a much-needed respite for four members of the PGA Tour.
But in a sense, theirs is a fraternity.
When they’re competing, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Smylie Kaufman are virtually inseparable off the course. Last week Fowler, Thomas and Kaufman reveled in the fact they were paired together for the first two rounds of the Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club, calling it their #sb2k16 reunion.
Their bond has a six-degrees-of-separation feel, with Thomas cast as Kevin Bacon.
Thomas, 23, has been competing against Spieth, 22, since he was 14. Fowler, 27, lives near Thomas in Jupiter, Fla. Tour rookie Kaufman, 23, has known Thomas the longest. All are ranked in the top 60 in the World Golf Rankings, with Spieth No. 2, Fowler No. 7, Thomas No. 34 and Kaufman No. 56.
“Those are three of my best friends,” Thomas said Friday after the second round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club. “There’s not a night throughout the week that one of us isn’t eating with the other, if it’s not all three or four of us.”
But Kaufman suggested that it’s more than dinner.
“It’s nice to have friends out here … they have your back and if you ever need anything they’re there for you,” he said.
It might seem unusual for professional athletes to vacation together, at least in the fun free-for-all they enjoyed at Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas the week of April 18. Now it’s possible it could become an annual affair, despite the difficulty in scheduling.
“It’s tough to all have the same kind of week off where we can go and let loose at the same time. But it may,” Spieth said Tuesday. “We’re good friends so we plan on hanging out somewhere at some point, maybe in the offseason, and maybe we’ll have more friends. We’ll see.”
Fowler suggested that they will probably end up taking more trips, whether this year or next, although he’s not sure the destination will be the same. Thomas suggested December or March might also be possibilities.
“I really would like to do it again soon,” Thomas said. “It’s the best way to take your mind off of the grind. It was really, really good for all of us. I think it came at a good time of the year.”
World No. 4 Rory McIlroy was also invited, but was headed to Barbados with his fiancée Erica Stoll. After he saw the videos that took Snapchat by storm, McIlroy tweeted, “Maybe I should have taken @RickieFowler up on the invite. … Definitely try to do it next time for sure.”
“A lot of guys were jealous they didn’t go,” Thomas said. “But it’s not a thing we’re trying to get a lot of people to do. It’s our little group of guys.”
Fowler has been going to Baker’s Bay twice a year, whether on his own or with family, for a while and has gotten to know some of the members. So when he and Thomas came up with the idea, it was an easy choice.
“It’s the best. It’s very relaxing, you can do whatever you want,” Thomas said. “It’s secluded so you’re not dealing with a lot of people, we go out there and do our own thing. No rules, we can play golf in whatever clothes we want and play the music as loud as we want, go out in the water, go to the pool. It’s kind of our own little fantasyland.”
The white second-story railing the foursome jumped off was at a house owned by a friend of Fowler’s and not nearly as dangerous as it looked.
“It’s plenty deep. I’ve jumped off there multiple times,” Fowler said.
“Everyone was freaking out. We wouldn’t have done it if it was dumb,” Thomas said.
“Rickie’s the one who told us to do it,” Kaufman said. “Justin was the pansy of the group. We had to talk him into doing it.”
The good talks they had will lead to closer friendships that will help during trying times on the tour. But for Kaufman, there was an unexpected benefit from the social media buzz the trip created.
“It made me famous,” Kaufman said. “It let people kind of see my personality. I’m kind of aggressive, tenacious, not always smiling on the golf course — it’s the competitor in me. It’s good to let people see my fun side.”
Fowler’s reaction to that may have given a glimpse of the razzing in their private fantasyland for which they now yearn.
“We didn’t introduce Smylie to the world, I think we introduced the world to Smylie,” Fowler said.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.