Koepka ‘thankful’ after girl escapes injury in golf-cart incident

The Valspar Championship was temporarily halted during Saturday’s third round when a young spectator was struck by a golf cart.

Brooks Koepka was among the first to offer comfort to the girl; he was playing the par-3 15th, ducked under the ropes and went to check on her.

On the NBC broadcast, Dan Hicks said the girl had ended up underneath the cart, which had been transporting spectators. But walking reporter Smylie Kaufman explained that she had escaped serious injury.

“She’s going to be OK after medical evaluation,” Kaufman reported when Hicks checked back in on the scene. “Very scary moment.”

After his round, Koepka offered his perspective on the incident.

“Not golf-wise, no,” he said, asked if the incident had affected his play. “I just felt terrible for, I believe her name is Shay, so from all the reports you’ve got she’s okay, thankfully. So that’s all that matters, as long as she’s okay.

“I know she’s probably a little scared and I just felt for her at the time. So it’s unfortunate, it shouldn’t have happened, but as long as she’s okay, no, nothing crazy happened to her, then it will be okay.”

Koepka made double bogey at the par-4 16th; he sits T11 at four under par through three rounds, seven shots off Sungjae Im’s lead.

“I’m a long ways away. I felt like I needed to get to at least, it would have been nice to stay at 6,” he said. “I need a real low one tomorrow.”