Matt Fitzpatrick called for a ruling on the eighth hole Sunday during the final round of the BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Colorado. It did not go well for him. He birdied the first three holes to start the day and made par on the next four when he realized that there was a crack on the face of his driver.
Fitzpatrick and the PGA Tour rules official inspected the driver. Although the crack was admittedly visible the tour determined that it did not meet the standard of being “significantly damaged.” If it would’ve been considered as such, Fitzpatrick could’ve replaced it under USGA Model Local Rule G-9.
“This is outrageous,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s an absolute joke.”
“There’s an obvious crack there, that’s causing a defect of the ball flight.”
“So I’m going to have to use 3-wood the rest of the day,” he said toward the official, again making clear that he was not pleased with the situation.
Matt Fitzpatrick, 36th in the FedExCup entering the week, called for a ruling for a driver crack.
Under the USGA’s Model Local Rule G-9, a club is not replaceable solely because of a crack, and he was not permitted to replace it at the time due to lack of significant damage. pic.twitter.com/X5kEPkee1q
— PGA TOUR LIVE (@PGATOURLIVE) August 25, 2024
Even NBC Sports analyst Kevin Kisner disagreed with the ruling, saying, “Terrible rule. This is a no-brainer.”
PGA Tour chief referee Stephen Cox said: “In our assessment, not only with the first official but also a couple of others including myself, that threshold of being significantly damaged hadn’t been significant 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, so his only choice in that case was to continue using that club. Now, if that club were to get worse, then we would obviously continue to reassess, and at that point he may have been able to have taken it out, but in his case, I think he chose not to continue to use it and proceeded with his 3-wood from then on.”
Fitzpatrick bogeyed the eighth hole, made double bogey on the 10th and played his last six holes without a par, going birdie, birdie, bogey, birdie, birdie, bogey to shoot two-under-par 70.
He tied for 28th place and will not advance to the Tour Championship next week at East Lake. He was projected to be 40th in FedEx Cup standings when he finished his round, with the top 30 players in points moving onto Atlanta.
Main Image: Icon Sportswire
