It’s one of the worst feelings I’ve had on a golf course. I was absolutely devastated. I gave her a hug. I didn’t know what else to do
Hatton’s horror as he hits fan days after Koepka strikes spectator at Ryder Cup
TYRRELL HATTON was devastated after becoming the second Ryder Cup player in a week to injure a woman with an errant tee shot.
The Englishman revealed he couldn’t concentrate for the rest of his round at the Dunhill Links yesterday after his ball split the head of a female spectator on the 15th hole at Kingsbarns.
The lady from Edinburgh was taken to hospital for stitches on her forehead and her condition was not understood to be serious.
But Hatton admits he was still shaken by the incident, coming just six days after a woman lost the sight in her right eye when she was struck by Brooks Koepka’s ball during the first morning of the Ryder Cup.
Hatton said: “It’s one of the worst feelings I’ve had on a golf course. It’s the first time I’ve ever hit someone. I was absolutely devastated, I still am.
“I gave her a hug. I didn’t know what else to do. My head was all over the place.
“It’s not a sight you ever want to see. You want spectators to come out and have a great day. On this occasion unfortunately she didn’t get to enjoy her day.
“I was getting updates on
the course because I wanted to know how she was doing.
“When I finished my first nine holes I got told she was okay, that she was going to hospital to have a couple of stitches but there were no concerns from a medical point of view. Which is obviously good news.
“It was difficult to concentrate afterwards. It kind of reminds you that golf
isn’t that important. I was just thinking about what had happened but having the updates helped.
“Her daughter was walking around with us and she seemed okay. I put my arm around her, the daughter, when I got to the 15th green because she was crying.
“It was obviously a horrific moment but the good news is she seems to be okay.”
Incredibly, Hatton’s playing partner Luke Donald hit a spectator on the ankle at the same hole, prompting Tour staff to move the ropes that separates the fans from the fairway further back.
Donald said: “It was just unfortunate but he seemed okay and fortunately – unlike the woman Tyrrell hit who needed to go to hospital – the chap seemed okay.
“Both incidents were just bizarre that they should
happen to the same group and on the same hole.
“You hit that shot off the 15th and you think, given the strength of the crosswinds, that the ball is going to feed back to the fairway but they didn’t.”
Koepka was also at Kingsbarns, playing just a couple of groups ahead of Hatton in his first competitive round since learning the seriousness of the injury he accidentally caused spectator Corine Remande last week. The US Open and USPGA champion revealed he was “torn up inside” about the accident but insisted yesterday he cannot allow the guilt to affect him mentally when he steps back on the course. Koepka said: “It doesn’t get in my head. Obviously I feel terrible about it but I can’t do anything about it now. I wish I had never hit that shot. “Don’t get me wrong, it has gotten me. “I’m torn up about it and I was shaking yesterday in the press conference. But I can’t let it affect me on the course.”