Fan blinded at Ryder Cup feared being trampled

LYON: The spectator who was blinded in one eye after being struck by a wayward Brooks Koepka tee shot at the Ryder Cup said on Wednesday that she feared being trampled by crowds while lying stricken on the ground.

Frenchwoman Corine Remande, 49, was hit by Koepka’s drive on the short par-four sixth hole on Friday’s opening day of the event at Le Golf National, near Paris.

“Before being moved, in a big mess, I was afraid of being trampled because Tiger Woods was coming and the crowd was growing around us,” she told AFP on Wednesday.

“What shocked me too was that the spectators were taking pictures of me, but no one was calling for help.”

She is taking legal action, and said that was because fans by the green were not warned that the ball was heading in their direction.

Ryder Cup organisers have stated that “fore” was “shouted several times” and that they had been in contact with Remande and her family.

“The stewards should have shouted ‘fore’,” she said.

“They did not do it. To make a show, the organisers moved the tees forward on the sixth hole to allow the big hitters to reach the green in one shot.

“Without warning the spectators, the public cannot see the players and anticipate and protect themselves. That’s why I’m angry.”

She added that for three days after the incident, no one from the Ryder Cup visited her or reached out to her.

“We have now filed a complaint in order to have answers to our questions, to challenge all the organisers on behalf of the safety of the public.”

Remade will stay in Lyon, where her parents live, for a few more weeks because she cannot return to her home in Egypt.

She had told AFP on Monday at a Lyon hospital that the loss of sight in her right eye had been confirmed and that she had suffered a fractured eye socket and damaged eyeball.