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Matt Fitzpatrick is still very salty about his cracked driver ruling, and we don't blame him
Warren Little
Matt Fitzpatrick has reached the "people don't forget" portion of his cracked driver ruling saga, which began at the BMW Championship last month.
That week at Castle Pines in Colorado, Fitzpatrick had cracked his driver during the final round of of the penultimate FedEx Cup Playoff event. The incident occurred on the eighth tee, where the Englishman asked for a ruling, a discussion ensued, and his request to replace the club was denied, as our equipment experts eloquently explained in the aftermath.
While it was technically the correct ruling, Fitzpatrick was still incensed. "This is outrageous, an absolute joke," he said to the official, which was picked up on the PGA Tour live broadcast. "There's an obvious crack there."
Some of Fitzpatrick's fellow pros and former pros took his side, naturally, including NBC analyst Kevin Kisner as well as PGA Tour live on-course commentator Matt Every. But he was overruled anyway. To prove a point, Fitzpatrick hit the driver another time anyway and reacted in disgust.
We are now nearly a month removed from the Fitzpatrick incident, and the former U.S. Open champion is another $360,000-plus richer. But just because you're rich doesn't mean you can't still stick it to the man. Stand for nothing, fall for anything, as they say.
On Thursday at Wentworth, where Fitzpatrick is competing in the BMW PGA Championship (different tournament, different tour), Rory McIlroy's club head flew off in a now viral video because of the result of the shot. Fitzpatrick used that as an opportunity to once again dunk on the PGA Tour for what he was a poor ruling last month. Like we said, people don't forget:
Still salty, huh? It's hard to blame him. Even if that was the correct ruling last month, it still seems odd to force a player to continue playing with a clearly cracked driver. Or force them to use a club that doesn't go as far. Keep fighting the good fight, Fitzy.