One of the lasting images of Phil Mickelson’s PGA Championship victory on Sunday was the massive crowd that had surrounded him walked with him toward the 18th green at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island.
But not everyone loved the moment, particularly Mickelson’s counterpart — Brooks Koepka.
Koepka, who has been recovering from knee surgery in March, said the crowd of fans made it difficult for him to protect the knee.
“It would have been cool if I didn’t have a knee injury,” he said of the fans, per ESPN. “[I] got dinged a few times in the knee in that crowd because no one really gave a s—t, personally. But if I was fine, yeah, it would have been cool. It’s cool for Phil. But getting dinged a few times isn’t exactly my idea of fun.”
Koepka added that his caddie, Ricky Elliott, also got hit in the face by someone in the crowd.
“Somebody jammed Ricky,” he said. “Ricky stopped unintentionally because he got drilled in the face, and then I got hit because he got stopped so quickly. There were so many people around.”
Koepka’s knee injury came after he slipped while on vacation and needed a procedure to put the knee cap back in place.
The 31-year-old was told earlier in the week that it would be another six months before his knee is fully recovered, but Koepka has managed to play through the rehab process, and quite well.
He finished in a tie for second with Louis Oosthuzien, but his knee also appeared to hamper his ability to bend over low enough to get a proper read on putts, which he struggled with.
“[I was] trying to protect my knee,” he said. “I don’t think anybody really understands until you’re coming out of surgery how — I mean, even when I was doing rehab and there’s five people kind of standing by your knee, you get a little skittish.
“Like, I don’t mind waiting or being in that crowd but getting my — I don’t know, it felt like somebody tried to, I don’t know what the deal was, but it’s what it is. [I’ll] be putting it in ice today. It feels like s—t right now.”
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