Lost Balls – Brooks Koepka’s Concern In A ‘No Spectators’ Return

‘Lost Balls’ .. That’s the biggest concern for all golfer’s amateurs or major champions.Of course, amateurs on the whole are used to playing without spectators and thus need to be ever-watchful on any errant shot given there is no spectators to help out in searching for a ball which is not always the case at the PGA Tour or European Tour level of the game.

So, you can understand four-time major winning Brooks Koepka slight concern when the PGA Tour returns to competition mid-June in Texas.

The Tour announced late last week it has chosen June 11th for a restart to competition at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Fort Forth and with the first four events, including the RBC Heritage, Travelers Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic – to go ahead without spectators.

Therein lies Koepka’s somewhat concern.

While they will all miss the support and noise crowds bring there’s more than a few times in any tournament, a player will get the benefit of a fortuitous bounce landing an errant shot into the crowd as well as crowd support in locating a ‘lost’ ball.

Indeed, Koepka clocked a marshal late during his opening round of the 2017 PGA Championship and with the marshal requiring medical attention while 15-time Major winning Tiger Woods has benefitted throughout his career in spectators finding lost balls.

Brooks Koepka says the sight of no spectators for the first four events of the rescheduled PGA Tour will be ‘weird’.

“It’s going to be awful without fans,” Koepka said.

“It’s not that he doesn’t think fan-less tournaments should happen, he just enjoys playing in front of crowds.

“The energy that the fans bring, that’s what we all live for, we all strive for so it’s going to be so weird.

“Then there’s the situation every once in a while, we just hit some foul balls and the fans kind of help you find it. I mean, guys are going to lose balls because of that.

“Also, you want to be there late on Sunday’s coming down the stretch and have everyone cheering for you. Imagine this: you sink the putt on the last hole and no one’s clapping. You’re just there by yourself, and you’re like ‘yes!’ Just you, your caddie and just silence.”

It’s uncertain at this stage who will tee-up $US 7.1m Charles Schwab Championship though one thing is certain and that’s Scot Russell Knox will be a starter having confirmed with www.golfbytourmiss.com last week the opening three events will be on his return to the Tour, if COVID-19 fears have eased.

The Texas event was Knox’s best finish of the year in securing a share of eighth.