Rory McIlroy broke a club yesterday as he plotted his way around Wentworth yesterday and Matt Fitzpatrick has made a great point about the situation.
McIlroy hit a fine shot into the par five ninth but in bizarre circumstances, his club head went spinning up into the air as the ball remarkably landed around 12 feet from the hole.
McIlroy would go on to make birdie on the hole and in the end, the broken club head had minimal impact on the actual shot.
At the time, McIlroy admitted he didn’t even know what had happened with the entire shot.
“I couldn’t even see. I lost the ball. I didn’t have a clue,” The Northern Irishman told SkySports.
“[The shot] was unbelievable. It reminded me of Ludvig’s when his driver head came off this year, and he hit it close.”
However, while McIlroy was able to make light of the situation, the same can’t be said about fellow Ryder Cup player Matt Fitzpatrick a few weeks ago.
Fitzpatrick labelled the rules officials a joke a few weeks back at the BMW Championship after being unable to replace a damaged driver head. At the time, the Sheffield-born former US Open winner was fuming.
But over on social media, Fitzpatrick has used his experience and what happened to McIlroy to make light of things.
Matt Fitzpatrick reacts to Rory McIlroy incident during the BMW PGA Championship
Taking the incident in good faith, Fitzpatrick took to his own account on X and posted a funny caption in response to the footage of McIlroy’s club being broken.
Can Rory McIlroy replace his broken club?
In a nutshell, McIlroy was unable to replace the club during the round although there is some confusion looking at the rules.
The R&A state the following under 4.1a:
If your conforming club is damaged during your round or while play is stopped:
- You may continue to make strokes with the damaged club for the rest of the round, or,
- Except in cases of abuse, you may repair the club or replace it with another club.
While the USGA ruling seems to differ slightly, suggesting no club change is allowed.
New Rule: Under Rule 4.1:
- A player is allowed to keep using and/or to repair any club damaged during the round, no matter what the damage and even if the player damaged it in anger.
- A player is not allowed to replace a damaged club, except when it is damaged during the round by an outside influence or natural forces or by someone other than the player or his or her caddie.
McIlroy, of course, will have a new 9-iron for round two and will be hoping to avoid such scenes again.
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