Matt Fitzpatrick wasn’t allowed to replace his cracked driver for the last 10 holes of the final round of the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club on Sunday after a PGA Tour rules official determined the damage didn’t qualify as significant.
“This is outrageous, it’s an absolute disgrace,” said Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick called for a ruling on the eighth tee after he detected a crack in the middle of the face of his driver. Model Local Rule G-9 in the U.S. Golf Association’s Rules of Golf states a club isn’t replaceable solely because of a crack. A PGA Tour rules official determined that Fitzpatrick couldn’t replace the club due to a lack of significant damage.
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
Fitzpatrick, who entered the week at No. 36 in the FedEx Cup standings, didn’t agree and voiced his disgust.
“It has to be significant, surely,” Fitzpatrick said.
“They made the rule so it had to be folding in on its own,” the first rules official said.
“Terrible rule,” Kevin Kisner said on NBC. “This is a no-brainer.”
The rules official, speaking to a colleague via walkie-talkie noted he could see the crack and feel it with his fingernail.
“Not enough in my opinion looking at it to justify that,” he said. “I can feel it with my nail, about a half an inch crack right in the center of the face.”
The local rule cited doesn’t cover Fitzpatrick’s damage. Another rules official cited a previous situation with Seung Yul Noh as precedent for not allowing Fitzpatrick to swap the club out with one of the two drivers in his locker.
“There’s an obvious crack there that is causing a defect to the ball flight,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We have said no to something worse than this,” the rules official said, who took the club to chief referee Stephen Cox.
“So, I’m going to have to hit my 3-wood the rest of the day is what you’re telling me?” Fitzpatrick said.
When told the final verdict, Fitzpatrick uttered, “this is an absolute joke.”
Cox gave a detailed explanation of why Fitzpatrick’s request to change out his driver was denied.
“We on the PGA Tour in very similar to other major golf tours around the world have a slightly stricter guideline in terms of when a player is permitted to take a damaged club out of play, and that club needs to be significantly damaged,” he 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.”