Koepka shaken after his tee shot bloodies woman

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, FRANCE — Brooks Koepka found no reason to be intimidated by playing in the Ryder Cup because golf isn’t a contact sport.

But it became one under the worst circumstances. And it shook him up.

Koepka’s wild tee shot on the par-4 sixth hole struck a woman in the gallery and bloodied her head. He said he checked on her condi- tion after his round and had not heard any update from Ryder Cup officials.

“It’s not a fun feeling. I probably do it way more than I should,” he said. “You feel terrible for them. You know exactly how they are feeling, especially when you’ve got to go over there and apol- ogize because they are in pain, usually bleeding, and then to hit her in the face is not ... you don’t want to hit anybody in the face, espe- cially not a woman, and it’s not a good feeling.

“I just wanted to get out of there,” he said. “We’ll get an update on her, but hope- fully she’s doing good.”

Koepka says he yelled, “Fore!” and not sure it would have mattered. The wind was slightly into the players on the sixth hole, and Koepka tends to hit his driver upward of 300 yards when in mild temperatures.

“The problem is, you shout, ‘Fore,’ but from 300 yards, how are you supposed to hear it? How are you supposed to know?” Koepka said. “From 300 yards, even if none of us said, ‘Fore,’ she’s going to get hit. And that’s the unfortunate thing.”

The hole ended with Finau chipping in for eagle.

Sergio’s spark: A spark has been missing in Sergio Garcia’s game since he captured his first major at the Masters last year.

He rediscovered it at his beloved Ryder Cup.

After sitting out the morn- ing fourballs, Garcia teamed with Alex Noren in a 5-and-4 rout of Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau that was fueled by a run of five birdies in seven holes on the front nine.

Not only will it boost Gar- cia’s confidence in a year when he missed the cut at all four majors, it went some way to justifying Thomas Bjorn’s decision to hand the Spaniard a captain’s pick despite other players being in better form.

“He had a tough year. When you play this game for a long time, sometimes when things are not going your way, you kind of write things off and then your goals change and what you want to do,” Bjorn said. “And I’ve felt all along with him that if I made that phone call to him, that he was going to be in this team, well then he would regroup his whole world.”

Garcia has won 23½ points at the Ryder Cup, the same as Colin Montgomerie. Two more points will take him past Nick Faldo (25) as the leading scorer from either team in the competition and he’ll get a shot at breaking the record at Le Golf National.

He is playing with Rory McIlroy against Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau in the morning fourballs today.

Lefty’s lament: Phil Mickelson made it official when he played a foursomes match by competing in 12 consecutive Ryder Cups, the most by any player. He also tied Nick Faldo by playing in his 46th match.

But it’s not all good news for Lefty.

He and Bryson DeChambeau lost, 5 and 4, to Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren. It was his 21st career loss, which broke the American record for most losses. One more loss and Mickelson would have the overall record for most losses. He is tied with Christy O’Connor and Neil Coles.