PGA Tour contender snaps driver in anger mid-round, forced to play without one

On the surface, things seemed to be going well for Sam Burns on Saturday at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. That is until a club slam resulted in a broken driver, forcing him to play the final nine holes without one.

And to make it worse, Burns was far from falling apart on the course. In fact, he was in contention to win.

Starting the day one off the lead, Burns was still in great position through his first eight holes of the third round. He had two bogeys at that point, but he also had drained four birdies. The solid play had improved his total score to 12 under, putting him in close pursuit of leader Hideki Matsuyama.

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But things aren’t as they always seem. Poor drives had ultimately been responsible for Burns’ bogeys at the 1st and 7th holes, and another wayward tee shot resulted in a disappointing par at the par-5 3rd (Matsuyama made eagle at 3).

So when Burns sent his drive at the 9th screaming into a grove of trees well left of the fairway, the frustration overcame him. Upon seeing another ball soaring toward trouble, he whip-slammed his driver into the ground on the follow-through.

Unfortunately for Burns, the club snapped when it impacted the tee box, sending the clubhead and the shaft flying in different directions. You can see the unfortunate moment below.

Burns was forced to punch his ball out of the trees with his second, successfully landing in the fairway. But his fortune didn’t improve from there. He failed to reach the green with his third shot, eventually carding a devastating double-bogey 6.

The crooked number dropped Burns to 10 under, four shots behind Matsuyama’s lead. Though Burns was still in third place at that point, he now was without a driver with nine holes left to play in the third round.

Somehow he managed to trade three birdies for three bogeys on the back nine to play even par golf the rest of the way and sign for a 70. Burns remains at 10 under heading into Sunday’s final round, tied with Scottie Scheffler for fourth place, but a distant seven shots behind Matsuyama.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As 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.