Joe Buck Recalls Feeling 'Sick' About Major Jena Sims Blunder After Brooks Koepka's First U.S. Open Win
The legendary announcer still remembers the Jena Sims mistake he made back in 2017.
A few people who love low-budget films may have known Jena Sims before she started dating Brooks Koepka, thanks to her role in the 2012 movie ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader,' but she really jumped into the public spotlight at the 2017 U.S. Open.
Joe Buck, who was part of the FOX golf broadcast team when the network was home to the major championship, was the man tasked with introducing her to the masses, only he told the world she was an entirely different person.
As Sims ran to kiss Koepka after he captured his first of five major championships, Buck introduced Sims as the golfer's ex, Becky Edwards.
Buck's mishap was a topic of conversation during his recent appearance on the ‘The JustIn Time’ podcast with Justin Kutcher, and the legendary announcer made it clear that he remembers the mistake vividly.
"During that week of the U.S. Open, making me appear way smarter than I actually am or way more well-read or way more well-versed in the PGA Tour than I otherwise would have been, and he handed me a card with the wrong name on there, I read the card and then, [Brad] Faxon corrected and said, no, that’s his new girlfriend, Jena Sims, I felt, that I was sick about," Buck said while recalling the moment.
"Because we had been taking punch after punch on Fox Golf, and it was like the last thing we had on the air before we said goodbye, and we’d been on for five days, all day and it was, it was a lot of work and I was like, oh my God, I let everybody down by that stupid, embarrassing moment, and you feel like the world’s talking about it and really nobody cares."
Mistakes happen, but it's fair to say that Buck has put together far more memorable calls during his sports broadcasting career than errors.
Buck didn't have to wait too long to get redemption with Koepka and Sims as he correctly mentioned her when Koepka won the U.S. Open the following year in 2018.
Koepka and Sims have been married since June 2022.