Most days are pretty good for Brooks Koepka. The 2018 U.S. Open and PGA Championship winner is living out nearly every golfer’s dream, but the Tuesday following the Ryder Cup was characterized by Koepka as “one of the worst days of (his) life.”
Koepka’s hooked drive on the par-4 6th hole hit 49-year-old Corine Remande just above her right eye, blinding her in the eye. Koepka, who was described as generous and compassionate by Remande, was shaken to the core when he heard the news that there was a significant injry that he had caused.
Corine Remande, the spectator who was blinded in one eye after being struck by an errant tee shot from Brooks Koepka at the Ryder Cup, tells @AFP she feared “being trampled” while lying stricken on the ground
Read her exclusive interview: https://t.co/9UZLQxig7g pic.twitter.com/ty2LV2nE11
— AFP Sport (@AFP_Sport) October 3, 2018
Playing in this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, a pro-am event in which he will play alongside his brother, Chase, and his usual caddie, Ricky Elliott, Koepka was understandably preoccupied.
“(Tuesday) was probably one of the worst days of my life,” Koepka said on Wednesday at the Alfred Dunhill Links in Scotland. “I haven’t had too many tragedies in my personal family where there’s been a loss or any kind of tragedy, accident. I’ve been lucky in that sense.
“I wasn’t told until I got to the golf course. I’m not the biggest person on social media. I don’t have updates come into my phone. So when I got here and I had about seven missed calls and 25 text messages, I was like, ‘what’s going on?’
“Then I was told the news, and obviously, like I said, I’m just really heartbroken. My stomach sank. Yesterday was probably one of the hardest days trying to focus on play golf, just knowing. And the sad part is, I don’t get to play with my brother very much and I brought my caddie over here to play.
“I wasn’t very talkative. I feel like I spent probably an hour and a half of my round on the phone, and text messages, trying to understand what was going on. It’s hard to get the real story of what was going on.
“If this was one of those — if it was the Dustin thing, if it was fake or not, you want to find out; you hope it’s not. But it’s sad, and I really am, I’m kind of torn up about it.”
Remande plans to sue the Ryder Cup organizers because she claims that she was not made aware of a ball coming her way.
“The stewards should have shouted ‘fore’,” she said. “They did not do it. To make a show, the organizers moved the tees forward on the sixth hole to allow the big hitters to reach the green in one shot.
“Without warning the spectators, the public cannot see the players and anticipate and protect themselves. That’s why I’m angry.”
