WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Brooks Koepka wasn't as upset about missing out on another PGA Championship win as he seemed to be about having to protect his surgically repaired right knee from the throng of fans who engulfed him and eventual winner Phil Mickelson at the conclusion of Sunday's tournament.
The Palm Beach County native was angered by the bedlam in the 18th fairway at the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
"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 s---, personally," Koepka told reporters Sunday. "But if I was fine, yeah, it would have been cool. You know, it's cool for Phil. But getting dinged a few times isn't exactly my idea of fun."
Spectators pushed past marshals and security to reach the fairway and surround the 18th green after Mickelson and Koepka hit their approach shots.
Koepka said he had just one thing on his mind at that time.
"Trying to protect my knee," he said.
Koepka, who finished in a tie for second, has been recovering from a knee injury he suffered in March, which forced him to miss the Honda Classic.
The Cardinal Newman High School and Florida State University graduate said "it felt like somebody tried to" hurt his knee.