The pro loses the playoffs after the driver made a mistake on his way to the tee

There are situations where you can almost expect your driver to freak out. They hand it to the airlines without a stiff arm or a good suitcase. You get a little angry after driving the round snap hooks into the woods for the fifth straight time (yeah, it was the recoil). You hand it to your beginner friend who is doing some overly steep practice swings in the parking lot.

But riding in a cart en route to a playoff for a pro event? No, this is probably one of the least likely situations for a driver to break down. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to LPGA pro Anne Van Dam on Sunday.

Van Dam started the final round of the Ladies European Tour’s KPMG Irish Open with a three-shot lead but played a shaky final round on Sunday and had to birdie in the final round to enter a three-way playoff with Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson and Smilla Tarning Soenderby to come to Denmark.

Don’t worry, Van Dam, a five-time LET winner, landed two shots off the front of the green on the par-5 18 to secure her spot, but when she hit the 18th tee at Dromoland Castle for the second time, hers Bag was a little lighter.

The 27-year-old from the Netherlands drove a kart back to the tee for the playoffs. As she and an officer walked up the fairway, they were ordered off the ropes to get to the tee.

The rider pulled on the rope and Van Dam grabbed the rope to lift it over him. But she let go too soon.

As the cart passed, unbeknownst to Van Dam and the officer, the rope caught Van Dam’s driver and ripped the whole bag off the back of the cart. When Van Dam came back to pick him up again, her driver’s racquet cover was left behind, separate from the rest of the racquet.

Under the Laws of Golf, a stroke play playoff is on new This means Van Dam was able to swap out their driver before the start of the playoffs. However, Monday Q InfoRyan French of ‘s reported that this was unlikely for Van Dam.

She could have, but even if she had a new replacement, she doesn’t use a racquet she hasn’t hit once in the last X periods. No pro will feel comfortable playing this ESP in a playoff.
I’m sure she would still have hit three punches. https://t.co/BMmt12jXz0

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) September 3, 2023

In the video above from the show, one broadcaster asks, “It hasn’t happened again, has it?” That’s because, according to French, Van Dam was already playing with her reserve driver this week. The airlines broke their player on the way to Ireland.

Somehow it gets worse.

En route to the tournament, Anne Van Dam’s main driver was broken by the airline en route to the event. That was her backup.

My goodness. What a week.

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) September 3, 2023

Even without their driver, Van Dam still managed to grab the putting surface in the two-on-playoffs. But before she even attempted her eagle putt from about 15 feet, Soenderby, who scored 62 points to make the playoff, landed her eagle putt from outside Van Dam. The attempt by the member of the European Solheim Cup 2019 to extend the contract narrowly failed.

A long week for Van Dam ends with two broken riders and a brutal second place finish.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an editorial assistant at GOLF. A native of Pennsylvania, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University with degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program as head coach. Jack is also still *trying* to stay competitive with the local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack worked for two years at a television station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a multimedia journalist/reporter, but also as a producer, host and even host of the weather report. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.