Damage control: when a club breaks, sometimes you can't replace it

Golf Digest, August, 2003 by Pete McDaniel

Drivers normally don't come in two pieces, so you can imagine caddie Harry Brown's surprise when he reached into Bob Gilder's golf bag during the opening round of the MasterCard Championship in January and found that Gilder's driver was broken. There is no penalty for breaking a club, but there are rules for how to proceed once the damage is discovered.

In Gilder's case, he had just used the club on the ninth tee and was preparing to putt on that hole when Brown noticed the driver was broken.

"Bob said the club was fine when he put it back in the bag after hitting his tee shot on 9," said Champions Tour rules official Ken Lindsay, who was notified at the 10th tee.

Gilder had a backup driver in his locker, but the mysterious nature of the incident rendered the extra club temporarily useless. According to Rule 4-3b, if a club is damaged other than in the normal course of play, it can't be used or replaced during the round.

Had the club been damaged during the normal course of play (i.e., cracking the shaft while attempting to hit a ball next to a tree root) Gilder would have had three options: 1. Use the club in its damaged state the remainder of the round; 2. Repair it without unduly delaying play; 3. Replace the damaged club with any club he chose.

It should be noted that a club is not considered "unfit for play" because the shaft or clubhead is merely bent.

Gilder used a 3-wood instead of a driver the remainder of the round, shot two-over-par 74 and eventually tied for 34th behind winner Dana Quigley.