46 / JANUARY 2018 / GOLFDIGEST.CO.ZA PHOTOS BY GETTY IMAGESThankfully, the man only suffered a
cut. Koepka spoke with him, gathered
his name and information and later
even connected with him to make sure
he was alright. “I felt terrible about it,”
Koepka said. “He was laughing and
joking when I was there, kept telling me,
‘You got a good break.’ I was like, Well, I
still feel like crap.”
The PGA Tour slogan is true, these
guys are good. But they’re also human.
For all the years they’ve spent playing
the game, sometimes their golf ball dis-
obeys. And when a shot wanders offline
at a tournament, with spectators present
(albeit not always paying attention),
there’s a good chance somebody will
get hit.
In fact, this happens more than you
might imagine. In a four-hole stretch
during the Genesis Open at Riviera CC
outside Los Angeles, Pat Perez managed
to drill three spectators with errant
shots. One of them had to leave on a
stretcher. “Everyone thinks we’re going
to hit it straight all the time,” Perez said.
“We don’t.”
Brendan Steele recalled all three
players in the group behind him this
year at Riviera hitting spectators. At the
2010 Memorial, Tiger Woods hit three
spectators in a single day. The incoming
pellets aren’t limited to fans or volun-
teers, either. At this year’s Open, Dustin
Johnson’s approach to the ninth at Royal
Birkdale left a memorable imprint on
the cheekbone of a journalist from the
Irish Times.
Thankfully, the end result usually
isn’t catastrophic and sometimes is even
lighthearted: A moment of brief pain
eased by a fan getting a signed glove,
something most are willing to endure
for the 15-second brush with fame.
“Sometimes I want people to jump in
front of it,” Steele said of a bad shot,
noting that fans can provide players
some good breaks.
Arguably golf ’s most famous incident
of a player hitting a fan, Lu Liang-huan
(more well known as Mr Lu) treated
Lillian Tipping and her husband to an
all-expenses-paid vacation to his homecountry of Taiwan after having struck
her in the head during the final round
of the 1971 Open at Royal Birkdale,
where he went on to finish second to
Lee Trevino by a stroke.SHAKEN UPI
t doesn’t always go so smoothly,
though, for the player or the fan.
“I’ve hit an old person, all the way
down to a 1-year-old,” says Jason
Day. “I hit a kid in the head the
year (2015) I won at Torrey Pines.
He was bloody. It was bad. That shook
me up a bit.”
While reassured that the Quail Hollow
volunteer at the PGA was not seriously
hurt, Koepka appeared to be unnerved, at
least for a moment. Despite being in the
middle of the fairway, he hit his next shot
heavy and fanned it right of the green,
leading to one of just two bogeys on a
day in which he shot a 69.
Rory McIlroy recalled a similar
scenario unfolding on the final day at
Wentworth one year playing alongside
Pablo Larrazabal. “He went from chance
to win to finishing wherever,” said
McIlroy of Larrazabal’s shot that split a
fan’s head open. “He couldn’t hit a shot
afterwards he was so shaken up. “If you
hit someone, and they’re okay, it’s fine.PABLO COULDN’T
HIT ANOTHER SHOT
PROPERLY AFTER
SPLITTING OPEN
A FAN’S HEAD.
DANGER RIGHT Players seldom shout Fore at a tournament, so spectators have to look out for outstretched arms.