Wild scene unfolds with fans swarming Ocean Course for Mickelson, Koepka final shots
Phil Mickelson won his sixth major Sunday in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course, but he struggled to reach the 18th green to make his final putts when a throng of hundreds of spectators enveloped him and his caddie and brother, Tim Mickelson, as they approached the 18th green.
“It was an incredible experience. I’ve never had something like that happen,” Phil Mickelson said. “It was a little bit unnerving, but it was exceptionally awesome, too. So it was kind of a special moment that I’ll be appreciative of.”
A police escort was needed to push the Mickelsons through the crowd.
“I couldn’t hear a thing through the whole darned thing. I just saw the cops pushing the way and I said, ‘I’m going to get right behind this guy.’ That’s what I did to get through,” Tim Mickelson said. “It was obviously a cool sight. Considering where we are in the world right now it was sort of weird, but it was also pretty darned cool to see.”
Because of COVID restrictions, the PGA of America said it was limiting on-site spectators to a reported 10,000 per day rather than the 30,000 or so that were there each day for the 2012 PGA Championship, and other COVID-related protocols were put in place to protect the players.
Mickelson’s playing partner and co-runner-up Brooks Koepka, who is still recovering from right knee surgery and is still not at a point where he can fully bend the knee, was lagging behind with caddie Ricky Elliott and had an even more difficult time getting to the green.
“It would have been cool if I didn’t have a knee injury and got dinged a few times in the knee in that crowd because no one really gave a [hoot], personally,” Koepka said. “But if I was fine, yeah, it would have been cool. Yeah, it’s cool for Phil. But getting dinged a few times isn’t exactly my idea of fun.”
Koepka intimated that someone in the crowd may have had bad intentions.
“I don’t know, it felt like somebody tried to, I don’t know what the deal was, but it is what it is,” he said. “... It got bumped a few times. Somebody jammed Ricky, Ricky stopped unintentionally because he got drilled in the face, and then I got drilled in the [golf] bag because he got stopped so quickly. But I don’t know what someone tried to do or what, I don’t know what the deal was. There were so many people around.”
Once the competitors reached the 18th green, spectators surrounded and crowded around the putting surface for the winning moment.
“This is just an incredible sight,” CBS announcer Jim Nantz said during the broadcast.
“This is some crazy atmosphere,” commentator Nick Faldo said.
The atmosphere was electric and crowd sizes were significant on many holes for the leaders Sunday.
PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said Monday in a statement that tournament security was “overwhelmed” by the rush of spectators and apologized for the scene, particularly to both players.
“While we welcome enthusiastic fan engagement, we regret that a moment of high elation and pent-up emotion by spectators during the conclusion of yesterday’s historic PGA Championship briefly overwhelmed security and made two players and their caddies feel vulnerable,” Waugh said in the statement. “We always put player safety at the top of our list and are grateful order was restored. I have spoken to both players and apologized on behalf of the association.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2021 at 7:20 PM.
