If you didn’t know this already…broken club shafts are sharp. The lesson for today…if you break a club, make sure it is far from you when it breaks.

Here are two examples why.

I was playing in a tournament is Venezuela. In round 3 I had a chance to do some damage, but I sodded two pitches in a row on my second and third shots to a short par four after I almost drove the green. I snapped the wedge over my knee and one of the broken shaft ends slice open my pant leg and my calf. I played the last 4 holes with ripped pants, a bloody leg and no L Wedge which I needed 3 more times.

The next day I shot 65 and tied the course record.

I used to have matches against the bag room guys at PGA West. I would play three of them best ball.

One day I was one down with four to play. I nearly drove a short par 4 (seeing a patten yet?). I couldn’t decide which shot to hit, so I hurried up and hit the wrong one and ended up about 20 feet on a 100 foot pitch.

My cart (I had my own because I lived on the course)was about 10 yards away and I threw my L Wedge (seeing another pattern?) at the cart. The club head hit the front right tire, the shaft snapped just above the neck of the club head, the club with a small sharp broken shaft point, careened back at me and stuck into my shin. After I pulled it out, there was a gaping hole in my shin. My friends asked me if I needed the hospital..I said no, canned the 20 footer and birdied the last three.

The moral to the story: when you make an a$$ of yourself, you stop taking yourself so seriously and play better golf. So stop taking yourself so seriously so you don’t risk your life gouging out your carotid artery with a broken club shaft. You will play better golf and you won’t have a scar on you shin to prove your stupidity.