A Jon Rahm errant tee shot Thursday hit Sage Steele in the face during the first round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, resulting in the ESPN anchor being taken to a local hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The accident happened at No. 3, when Rahm hooked his tee shot left, hitting Steele at a reported 181 mph.
Golf writer Geoff Shackelford described an account from an eyewitness who “saw her on the ground, holding her nose, mouth or chin area,” with her hands “covered in blood.”
The New York Post reports she walked off under her own power.
“I was standing behind the tee when Rahm hit a hard hook into the left trees,” Shackelford wrote. “He immediately yelled ‘Fore Left!’ and aggressively waved his arm pointing left. The impact must have been brutal: Rahm’s tee shot ended up in the center of the fairway.”
Steele is back home in Connecticut and will not be back on ESPN’s coverage of the tournament this weekend.
She isn’t the only one who has been struck during the second major of the season.
Aaron Wise was hit in the head with an errant tee shot on No. 7 by Cam Smith on Friday.
Wise told Golf Channel he felt “fine” but “a little sore” after he bent down to identify his ball in the rough. That’s when Smith, playing the adjacent second hole, sent his tee shot wide right.
“I was walking down seven, surprised my ball was in the fairway, and then next thing you know, I mean there’s a little bit of ringing in my head,” Wise said, per ESPN. “I was down on the fairway. But you know, that happened for maybe 20 seconds, and I was pretty normal after that.”
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.
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