Fitzpatrick and Tour rules officer Mike Peterson analyzes the crack on the driver's face.
It all started on the 8th hole with a vision and a question: “It must be important, surely?” Matt Fitzpatrick said to a PGA Tour rules official as both looked closely at his Titleist TSi driver. The crack was already in the face Fitzpatrick was considered important enough to change the performance of the club. The law enforcement officer disagreed.
“I don't think so [the crack] that's enough for now,” replied the law enforcement official. “They made the law so it should be, like folding them.”
Because of Model Rule G-9 in the USGA's Rules of Golf, which states that a club cannot be replaced due to a crack, Fitzpatrick would not have won the debate — unless it was significant enough to hit the ground.
“There's an obvious rift that causes an error in the flight of the ball,” said Fitzpatrick, who confirmed that he has several driver heads in his locker.
Shortly after the officials refused to allow Fitzpatrick to change headers, the 29-year-old, who may have been trying to prove a point, clung to the driver and watched as the ball bounced back out before taking a break.
“This is outrageous,” Fitzpatrick said as he pulled up to the yard next to the law enforcement officer in a golf cart. Social media was all smiles as #GolfTwitter criticized the decision. No one could seem to understand why Fitzpatrick was forced to play with a faulty driver for the remaining 10 holes.
As the decision played out on television, many caddies and tour experts offered their opinions on the situation, including John Wood, a longtime Tour looper and current NBC reporter, who highlighted the huge problem with allowing the pros to keep rotating. their driver whenever there is a crack on the face that is too small.
“This rule is written this way to combat the 'spring effect' or 'mark time' rule of measuring the speed of the ball with the driver, or basically how small the face of the driver can be,” Wood told X. “A driver must be 'significantly' damaged' to be restored, which basically means it's cracked all the way through or bent/completely bent. If technicians were allowed to replace the driver with any type of crack, manufacturers could legally make the face smaller. It's a rotating method of distance control.
“Written this way, manufacturers must build their drivers with a 'buffer zone' so they don't break down too often. The smaller the face, the faster the ball comes out, the more often it cracks and is replaced by another pushed up against the edge. Yes, I think it's ridiculous. Matt's driver was out of action after getting a crack. I don't think it's a good law either, but that's the reason.”
The current regulations surrounding the spring-like impact of the driver's face are intended to add barrier plates to the fastest technical part of the bag. Machine manufacturers are already pushing the limits of speed, which doesn't allow much wiggle room in terms of surface tension. And there is no chance of the governing bodies approving a younger face in the future.
The simple truth is that the face of the driver is fast, slows down over time, increasing the chances of cracking at inopportune times. Ultimately, that's the risk golfers take whenever they mix it up, especially with the older model driver, Fitzpatrick's TSi.
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What needs to be clarified, regardless of the model in question, is the gray area next to the definition of “severe damage,” which is defined only as a crack that causes the surface to completely penetrate. In the latest episode of Golf games Fully Equipped, Golf Laboratories founder and podcast host, Gene Parente, said there is an easy way to clear up the confusion.
“The thing I don't understand about this law is that there is someone who makes a decision unfairly and says, uh, it doesn't look too bad. I think you can go ahead — without proof,” Parente said. “As a person who makes a living doing this and has had a lot of screws in many machines, I can tell you that if it cracks, there is a problem. There are bulge and roll gauges that you can put on the face and see what the intended curvature is. That's our first sign before you see a crack. We will install this gauge and check the face. If there is a gap, that is the first indication that there is a problem. In a very short time, there is a crack. ”
Measuring the bump and roll of the driver's face during play is impossible, but if the face has visible cracks, there is a good chance that it will adversely affect performance, making it “severely damaged.” As Kris McCormack, VP of True Spec's Tour and Education says on the podcast, it's like being forced to play with a broken baseball bat.
“Look at any other game,” says Kris McCormack, associate producer at Fully Equipped. “That would be like telling a major league baseball player, 'Hey, I know your at-bat just blew up, but we're going to ask you to take it to your next at-bat.' I think it's an old rule. If it is changed from its original state, it should be able to be changed.”
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