Sage Steele Emotional In Espn Return After Getting Struck In Face At Pga Championship I Thought I Was Dying

The incident occurred after Steele, 49, had finished coverage for the day. She had reportedly moved to the gallery with other credentialed media members when an errant drive by Jon Rahm veered far left, prompting him to yell, “Fore left.”

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Video of the incident shows the ball traveling into the tree line, where a woman — later confirmed to be Steele — clutches her face and kneels to the ground.

Steele was able to leave the course on her own power and had since recovered from being struck in the face at her home in Connecticut.

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Following the end of their segment on Wednesday, Steele took time to give a heartfelt thank-you to “SportsCenter” co-host Matt Barrie, who was with her at the time of the incident at Southern Hills Golf Club in Tulsa, Okla.

“It is amazing how quickly life can change, right?” Steele said.

“I just looked at Matt and I just said, ‘Please don’t leave me.’ I grabbed your ankle with my bloody hand,” she said. “(He said,) ‘You’re going to be good. You’ll be fine.’ I don’t know if you believed it but you said it. It meant the world to me,” she said.

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Steele also included a photo of her and Barrie at the local hospital, with Barrie apparently trying to keep the situation as light as possible while Steele sported a bloodied smile. Steele also thanked her doctor and dentist for the work they performed to help her recover not only physically, but mentally.

Barrie also provided context into the situation, describing the incident as “one in 50 million” and saying Steele took the drive “like a champ.”

Steele, clearly emotional at that moment, asked Barrie to make her laugh. Barrie obliged, saying, “Will you go as that next year for Halloween, by the way?” Barrie said.

“What are you? Oh, I’m Sage at the PGA.”