Sergio Garcia saw red on day four of the 2025 Open when a wayward tee shot led to him snapping his driver in frustration.
The Spaniard missed the fairway left on the par-5 2nd and smashed his driver on the ground, with the head popping off. Ironically, he went on to make birdie on the hole after a solid par at the 1st.
Garcia is now playing the remainder of his round without a driver, as the rules state that you cannot replace a club broken in anger.
Watch: Sergio Garcia snaps driver at The Open
Sergio Garcia snaps his driver in frustration after a poor tee shot on the second hole 😤 pic.twitter.com/rqWIdfnLbbJuly 20, 2025
Rule 4.1 states: “A player is allowed to keep using and/or to repair any club damaged during the round, no matter what the damage and even if the player damaged it in anger.
“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.”
“To be totally honest, the last two or three months have been really tough the way I’ve played, and I controlled myself very, very well,” Garcia explained after his round.
“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.”
The Spaniard was in need of a strong finish this week at Royal Portrush to show Luke Donald he is worthy of a Ryder Cup wildcard selection. He closed with a three-under-par 68 to likely finish inside the top 40.
The LIV Golfer missed the cut at The Masters before finishing T67th at the PGA Championship. He failed to qualify for the US Open so Portrush was his last big chance to impress.
Having said earlier in the year that he wasn’t playing well enough to even accept a captain’s pick for Bethpage, he had changed his mind last week at Valderrama when asked.
“I had a good conversation with Luke last week, and we both know what we want,” he said.
“The only thing I can do is keep working hard, keep building my confidence up, and if I’m able to do that, then it should be fine. We’ll see.”
