If the video hasn’t gone viral, it’s been close. I understand. The image is not very common. It’s me hitting the driver on the tee of hole 11 of the Brabazon course at Belfry, on Saturday. Right at the end of the stroke, the club bounces off my back and the shaft breaks in two. The scare of Andy Sullivan‘s caddie is curious. By the way, the fact that there are images is completely accidental. A fan recorded me and then uploaded it to Instagram citing me.
Following the video, I have to tell you that this is not the first time this has happened to me. In fact, it happened to me again 20 days ago while training at La Hacienda Links, in Alcaidesa. Coincidentally, it was also recorded. Here you have it…
As you can see, what happens is that when I finish the stroke, the shaft violently hits bone, specifically the scapula, it bends a lot and ends up breaking. Twice in 20 days. It’s true that it’s not something very normal, but it’s due to my way of hitting the drive. I’ve been working on it with my coach, Jordi García del Moral, and it’s going well for me. The story is that I hit it with everything, to the maximum and it just so happens that the club ends up right at the height of that bone and breaks. There’s no more to it.
There are not a few who have written to me on social networks giving me advice on what I should change so that something like this does not happen. I appreciate it, really, but I’m not going to change anything because the ball goes straight, I like how I’m doing it and the truth is that the shaft breaks after the impact so it does not influence the flight of the ball. Moreover, on hole 11 it ended up long (within my standards) and in the middle of the fairway.
I admit that it’s a bit of a hassle because I have to be on the lookout, carry spare shafts and change them if necessary, but the most important thing is that the shot goes well. By the way, I’ll tell you what happened to us on Saturday because it’s curious, precisely in the process of changing the shaft. It can be replaced because it breaks in a normal action of the game, so Gonzalo Vicente, my caddie, had to go to the locker room from the 11th tee to get another shaft. We called a referee to take him in a buggy so that the operation could be done more quickly. After a couple of minutes a DP World Tour buggy appeared on the tee with a man perfectly dressed in a jacket and looking like a referee, Gonzalo got on, went to the locker room, got the shaft and we put it back together.
Shortly afterwards another referee appeared, now on the 11th green. I was surprised because we were doing well for time. He explained to us that the buggy where Gonzalo had got on was not a referee’s and that, therefore, we were going to receive two penalty strokes. In case you don’t know, players and caddies can only get on referees’ buggies during a tournament. We were stunned. We explained the situation and the truth is that he understood perfectly. He realised that it had been a mistake without any intention and did not give us any penalty.
By the way, the fact that I carry the spare shafts of the driver, which are not the same model as I had before but work, is almost a coincidence. We lost in the United States the shafts we used to align ourselves on the practice field and I took two driver ones from my house that have saved us. We only have one left for Switzerland. Let’s hope that no more shafts fall in the line of duty, although if the ball always ends up in the fairway, what can I say…
