Harry Styles is performing in Raleigh. But first, a round of golf with 2 Canes players
Just call them the Carolina Harrycanes.
No, really. It’s Twitter-bio official for the Hurricanes, who are unabashed in their excitement in welcoming pop star Harry Styles to North Carolina before he plays PNC Arena on Tuesday.
The love appears to be mutual. Styles, whose Love On Tour tour stopped in Raleigh on Tuesday, spent part of his Monday in North Carolina playing golf with Canes forwards Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho.
After the Carolina Hurricanes tweeted a photo of the former One Direction frontman with Necas and Aho with the caption, “Huge Caniac, Harry Styles,” the intersection of Harry Styles fans and Canes fans got to work making the tweet go viral.
Necas, Aho and Styles played their round of golf at Old Chatham in Durham and the photograph was taken on the 13th tee. Necas seemed to have a good time, adding “Golden day” to his Instagram post of the same photo.
And the Canes made it seem like the outing was just something totally obvious that could happen, tweeting another photo of Styles next to the title of his song, “Carolina.”
“It’s not as random as you think,” the Canes tweeted.
Necas said Tuesday that he believed Styles’ tour manager contacted Canes owner Tom Dundon about the chances of Styles getting in a round while in Raleigh. Necas and Aho jumped at the chance to play with him at Old Chatham.
“He’s a good guy,” Necas said. “Actually I was surprised, he’s really humble, funny guy. Seems like a normal guy (although) he’s a superstar, a pop star.
“It was a great day. We really enjoyed it. .... He was like super nice. He was making jokes, he wasn’t cocky at all. That was nice to see.”
How good a golfer is Styles?
“He’s pretty good,” Necas said. “He said he plays like three or four times a year. He’s like a 13-, 14-handicap, so that’s pretty good.”
Necas said he and his girlfriend planned to attend Styles’ concert Tuesday night. Odds are, they’ll have pretty good seats. Golf pals and all.
The Canes open their season 7 p.m. Thursday against the New York Islanders. Unfortunately, Styles won’t be in attendance. After playing Raleigh, he has a tour stop in Pennsylvania that night playing a show for Pittsburgh Stylers fans.
This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 8:28 PM with the headline "Harry Styles is performing in Raleigh. But first, a round of golf with 2 Canes players."
