Katie Griffiths received medical attention after being hit in the back of the head by golf ball hit by the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is usually all smiles when he meets with a fan, but not so on Friday.
Kelce and his brother, Jason, are participating in the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Travis Kelce is a regular at the celebrity golf tournament.
Ryan and Katie Griffiths have attended the tournament multiple times as spectators, and they got to meet Kelce in a most unfortunate way when his golf shot hit Katie in the back of the head.
The couple was at a par-5 hole and Katie had previously been near the green to get a gander at actor Miles Teller.
“But she really wanted to see Travis and Jason so we had a good spot, my brother-in-law and I,” Ryan Griffiths said in a phone interview. “So I called her and said, ‘Hey, they’re coming down. You should come up over this way.’ So of course I call her over and they were hitting their second shot because it’s a par-5.
“I’m guessing (Kelce) was probably going for the green, because he wasn’t laying up. I think he was probably hitting a 3-wood or something to try and get close to the green. Her back was to the shot and all of a sudden, boom, back of the head.”
Kelce’s shot drilled Katie and, like a linebacker coming from the blind side, she never saw it coming. Katie, by the way, is a big fan of Kelce’s girlfriend, superstar singer Taylor Swift.
“Obviously it came out of nowhere. No one really saw it coming,” Ryan said. “And then a couple minutes later was when he got down there. And under the circumstances, well, we can at least get a picture out of this so people believe us that this really happened.
“So my sister-in-law took the picture of the two of them. And she was trying to get Travis to smile but he was like, I can’t under these circumstances. He felt horrible. So I felt bad for him. His head was down. He felt really bad. It’s an accident, things happen, so we understand that. But yeah, he was really nice.”
Call it shock or perhaps adrenaline, but Katie managed a smile even if Kelce couldn’t.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce with Katie Griffiths. Courtesy of Ryan Griffiths
But as soon as the Chiefs star was on his way, the pain overtook Katie. She received treatment on the course.
“Once we got her in the golf cart,” Ryan said, “they suggested we go to the hospital in an ambulance just because it was a head injury.”
Katie Griffiths left the course on a golf cart. Courtesy of Ryan Griffiths
Katie needed two stitches and glue to close the wound, but she has no hard feelings about the incident.
The couple lives outside Los Angeles and Katie like the Chiefs because of Kelce and Swift. Ryan on the other hand …
“I’m a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan to be honest with you,” he said. “But my wife is a big Kelce fan. She’s a big Taylor fan. And Jason was sweet, too. He came over to check on her. They both felt really bad. They were gentlemen and came over to check on her.”
