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What happens when you accidentally break your putter during a PGA Tour event? Shane Lowry found out, and he had a few laughs about it along the way.
During Thursday’s opening round at the CJ Cup in South Carolina, Lowry was plodding along without incident until a strange occurrence on the ninth hole. Lowry pulled his Odyssey White Hot Pro 2-Ball putter out the bag too quickly, losing his grip on the club as it fell to the ground. He instinctively tried to use his foot to flick the putter back up to his hands, but he caught it in an awkward position. Suddenly, the putter rested on the ground, snapped in two.
“I had to like pick Matt Fitzpatrick off the ground from laughing,” Lowry said. “Yeah, it was interesting. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know if I was going to be able to use it again. It was absolutely accidental, there was no anger or anything. It was very, very strange. It was disappointing because I like that putter, that's the one I won with a few weeks ago and I kind of was starting to like it.”
Lowry putted with his lob wedge for the ensuing two holes, two-putting from 49 feet on the par-4 ninth and then converting a 5-foot par putt on No. 10. In the meantime, his agent ran to the member storage area of the Congaree clubhouse and found a random Scotty Cameron that Lowry would use for the remainder of the round.
Because the original putter was damaged accidently, Lowry was entitled to a replacement. Had he snapped the putter in anger, he would not have been able to replace it during the round. We’ve seen this on tour occasionally, including in the 2021 Masters when Si Woo Kim bent his putter during a temper tantrum on the 15th green and putted with a fairway wood for the remainder of the round.
Lowry carded a bogey-free 68 despite the putter troubles, although he lost more than a stroke on the greens compared to the field.
“My first putt was on the 11th green and I was like ‘I have no idea what's going to happen here,’” Lowry said.
And, just for the record, that Scotty Cameron was indeed returned to the member storage. A random member at Congaree had their putter used by a major champion.
The story didn’t end there, however. Because equipment trucks vacated the premises by Wednesday afternoon – standard operating procedure for tour events – Lowry didn’t have a replacement available for the second round. Congaree is also in a remote location, so some creativity was needed.
Odyssey reps sent Lowry’s replacement to the PGA Superstore in Bluffton, South Carolina, about an hour’s drive from Ridgeland. Lowry himself got in his car and drove down to the store to pick it up. He also bought an additional replacement with his own money, even posting the receipt in a tweet laughing about what happened. The receipt said the Odyssey White Hot OG 2-Ball he bought cost $229.99 with a SuperStroke Traxion Pistol GT grip for an added $29.99.
Lowry finished the tournament with the replacement Odyssey had sent him, actually gaining one stroke on the greens during the second round. In the end, it made for a funny moment.
“Yeah, big reaction on Twitter and social media and stuff,” Lowry said. “Look, it was one of those, it was kind of a bit of a freak thing.”
Sean Fairholm