Matt Fitzpatrick missed out on a place in the top 30 ahead of the FedEx Cup finale next weekend and he was not a happy man out on course at Castle Pines.
Fitzpatrick had come into the BMW Championship in 36th place and needed a strong final round to put himself in contention.
However, any hope Fitzpatrick had of making a late surge were dampened when he ran into controversy with the rules officials.
Standing on the tee box on the 8th hole, Fitzpatrick noticed a crack in his driver head but was refused the chance to change it, as a local ruling went against him.
Fitzpatrick labelled the decision a ‘disgrace’ at the time and it’s safe to say the ruling has caused quite the stir.
Why Matt Fitzpatrick wasn’t allowed to change his driver head at the BMW
The PGA Tour offered up an explanation of why the ruling was implemented.
“The rule details a number of situations where the club would be allowed to be replaced, but the rule states that a crack in and of itself does not meet the threshold of being significantly damaged,” Cox said.
“In our assessment — not only the first official, but also a couple of others including myself — that threshold of being significantly damaged hadn’t been met. Although there was a small crack in the face, there was no separation in the metals and on that basis that threshold wasn’t met.”
Still, regardless of that explanation, golf fans on social media were fuming with the call and over on social media platform X, there was a lot of unhappy supporters.
Golf fans furious with the PGA and USGA after Matt Fitzpatrick ruling
While a lot of golf talking points get fans commenting, this decision even had journalists and those involved with golf getting involved.
The popular Golf performance coach Lou Stagner was one of them, labelling the rule ‘absurd’.
Golf journalist Dan Rappaport also got in on the action, as he joined the queue of people questioning the decision.
In terms of the general fan reaction, it’s safe to say the call didn’t go down well.
@JettBlast00 provided a reasoned debate, saying Fitzpatrick should simply have been allowed to change.
“He’s not faking it or making excuses. If he has the same make, model, and loft to replace it with he should be allowed to replace it.”
While another fan, @j_eyes1, made the comparison to baseball.
“Crack a bat in baseball while hitting, get a new bat. Crack a driver head in golf while driving, nope sorry gotta use a broken driver.”
@williammyers1 labelled the rules officials ‘idiots’ in a harsher post.
“Decisions on the Rules of Golf” needs to be updated to keep these types of official calls out of the hands of idiots.”
While @W_Neesh simply called the decision a ‘joke’.
“Wow, what a joke. That’s an obvious crack and is no longer efficient or predictable.. garbage ruling!”
It’s safe to say, then, that the PGA and USGA have done themselves no favours here and there’d have not been a single player in the field who’d have objected to the change being allowed.
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