A scary moment halted play at the Valspar Championship on Saturday, when a golf cart struck a young girl and left her pinned underneath it at the 15th hole.
Thankfully, the girl was able to be freed, with on-course reporter, Smylie Kaufman, who was following the pairing of Brooks Koepka and Danny Walker, confirming that she was okay after being checked by medical staff.
🚨🙏🏼⛳️ #NEW — Brooks Koepka reacts after a little girl was reportedly struck, then pinned under a golf cart at the Valspar Championship. @TrackingKoepka pic.twitter.com/fTYZ8x6nXDMarch 21, 2026
Speaking after his third round, Koepka, who came over to comfort the girl struck by the cart, stated: "I just felt terrible for her, I believe her name is Shay, so from all the reports you've got she's okay, thankfully.
"That's all that matters, as long as she's okay, I know she's probably a little scared and I just felt for her at the time. So it's unfortunate, it shouldn't have happened, but as long as she's okay, no, nothing crazy happened to her, then it will be okay."
Following on from the incident, Koepka would par the 15th, before a double bogey at the 16th led to a level-par round and four-under tournament total, seven back of leader Sungjae Im.
Insisting that what happened at the 15th didn't affect his confidence, Koepka claimed it was his poor driving throughout the day that caused him to shoot his level-par 71, which included a three-over-par back nine.
"I felt good. Just played nicely the front side. Then I don't know, I drove it terrible all day. It really cost me," explained the five-time Major winner, who is T11th going into the final round and looking to carry on his good run of recent results.
"(I) Just put it in the worse place possible. Then from there felt like I was scrambling. But I definitely didn't hit it that great on the back side. But didn't feel like I deserved it, but at the same time I drove it so poorly.
"I drove it poorly on the front nine, you just got away with it. I've been driving it poorly all week. Drove it poorly last week.
"Yesterday I felt like I drove it well on the back side and finally started scoring. Yeah, I don't know exactly what it is, I've tried different things that I know that I'm used to doing mechanically wrong, alignment, ball position, different things like that, and I don't know just can't quite figure it out."
