At Open Championships, many pros hit driver less frequently than usual, often opting for a wood, hybrid or long iron off the tee on many holes. Sergio Garcia is taking that to another level on Sunday at the 2025 Open. Not for strategic reasons, but because he snapped his driver in anger early in the round and the rules bar him from replacing it.
Here’s what you need to know.
Garcia breaks his driver on Open Sunday
Before Sunday, Sergio’s performance at Royal Portrush could be described as steady if unspectacular. He opened with a solid one-under 70 on Thursday, fell back with a 73 on Friday, then steadied himself with a 70 on Saturday.
While his score of even par to start Sunday’s final round wouldn’t give him a chance to win (leader Scottie Scheffler begins Round 4 at 14 under), he could be proud of his result considering his age (45) and the fact that he nearly didn’t qualify at all.
Sergio Garcia makes startling claim after ‘terrible shots’ at PGA Championship
By:
Alan Bastable
Garcia earned his spot at this week’s Open Championship through a brand-new LIV Golf exemption enacted this year. Said exemption applies to the top pro in the top five of the LIV Individual Standings who is not already exempt.
But any gratitude the former Masters champion may have been feeling seemed to disappear quickly Sunday morning at Portrush.
Teeing off at 4:55 a.m. ET alongside Justin Leonard, Garcia opened his final round with a par despite losing his tee shot to the left. And any pro is happy with a par on the devilish 1st this week.
But when Garcia watched his tee shot (which appeared to be with a driver) sail short and left again on the par-5 2nd, apparently the frustration had built up to a breaking point.
Garcia angrily smashed his driver into the 2nd tee box, snapping it halfway up the shaft, and then watched as the half with the clubhead flew toward his golf bag and caddie.
Check out the moment below.
Later on Sunday, Garcia expressed surprise that his shaft had broken during his moment of frustration.
“To be totally honest, I didn’t feel like I did that much on the 2nd tee. Obviously I didn’t hit a good drive, and I kind of — I didn’t smack it straight down. I kind of like swiped it back. I’ve done that 50 times, and I’ve never broken a club. The shaft just snapped in half, and I was surprised. I wasn’t trying to break it, and I was actually surprised when I saw that — because usually, if it breaks, it breaks by the neck, and it broke in the middle of the shaft.
“I don’t know, maybe the shaft had a little thing there because I didn’t feel like with what I did it should have broken, but that’s what it was, and then I got some good practice when I threw it.”
Why Sergio Garcia can’t replace his snapped driver at Open
Making matters worse: Garcia then had to play the rest of his final round at Royal Portrush without a driver.
Why? The Rules of Golf bar him from replacing it before the round is complete.
The rules governing damaged clubs changed recently. According to the new Rule 4.1, “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.”
Because Garcia damaged the club himself in frustration, he will have to play the final 16 holes of the Open without a driver.
But due to another change to that same rule, Garcia could opt to play on with his snapped driver, though now shortened to approximately 20 inches, it is not in a playable state.
Incredibly, it didn’t seem to affect the 2017 Masters champion, at least at first. After snapping his driver on the 2nd tee, he birdied the hole to move to one under. And while he gave that shot back with a bogey at 4, he made another birdie at the par-5 7th to move back to one under.
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Kevin Cunningham
As senior managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.
