2023 U.S. Open: Si Woo Kim plays hurt after getting clipped by Keith Mitchell’s errant shot
LOS ANGELES – Si Woo Kim was preparing to hit one of the toughest 81-yard shots a player could have when he heard an echo across Los Angeles Country Club.
“I was just waiting and Keith [Mitchell] started yelling at us, ‘Fore!’” Kim laughed. “The ball dropped right in front of me. His ball was going to go in the rough but it hit me so I told him, ‘I saved you one stroke.’”
Mitchell was hitting his second shot from 284 yards into the par-5 14th hole when the effort sailed wildly left, landing just a few feet from where Kim and Bryson DeChambeau were standing on the 15th tee box, grazing Kim on his back.
“I guess that’s payback for me hitting Kenny Pigman at the PGA,” laughed DeChambeau, who hit Pigman, a club professional, last month in a similar scene at Oak Hill.
Kim playful laid on the ground when Mitchell found his golf ball but the incident didn’t seem to bother the 27-year-old from South Korea, who birdied the short par-3 hole.