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Brooks Koepka was full of remorse after he struck a female spectator during the opening session of the Ryder Cup, giving her a nasty eye injury.
Playing on the driveable par-4 sixth hole, the three-time major champion hooked his tee shot into the crowd and, despite shouts of ‘Fore’ from both Koepka and playing partner Tony Finau – as well as their caddies – the incident proved unpreventable.
The American was soon made aware of what had happened and, as is customary, walked over to the woman to give her a signed glove. But, speaking after his round, he admitted he had been affected by the incident.
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“I obviously saw her,” he said. “It looked like it hurt. She was bleeding pretty good. It looked like it hit her right in the eye, so hopefully there’s no loss of vision or anything like that.
“But it’s not a fun feeling. I probably do it way more than I should. It seems just about every week we’re hitting somebody, and you know, it’s unfortunate. You’re never trying to. You feel terrible for them.
“You don’t want to hit anybody in the face, especially not a woman. I just wanted to get out of there, so I’m glad Tony was able to chip-in and leave.”
Despite shouting ‘Fore’, Koepka added that he didn’t think it would make any difference to the outcome of the situation had he stayed quiet.
“It’s hard to control a golf ball, especially over 300 yards,” he added. “The problem is, you shout ‘Fore’, but from 300 yards, how are you supposed to hear it? How are you supposed to know?
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“At the same time, you can yell ‘Fore’, but it doesn’t matter. If you’re 150 yards away, you can hear it. But from 300 yards, even if none of us said fore, she’s going to get hit, and that’s the unfortunate thing.
“They can’t hear from 300 yards with the wind blowing and everybody’s got coats on because it’s cold. ‘Fore’ doesn’t really matter, but we did say it.”
Koepka shook off the incident as he and Finau battled back from 2-down with six holes to play to win their match against Justin Rose and Jon Rahm 1-up with a par on the 18th.
He finished by saying that he was awaiting an update about the fan’s condition.
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