At LIV Golf event, PGA champ Brooks Koepka deals with equipment fail

So it went over the next four holes until he struck his tee shot at No. 6, a 445-yard par 4, and began inspecting the face of his driver. Koepka noticed a small crack on the club head, and suddenly the leisurely walk brimmed with concern.

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He managed to regroup, however, on the back nine, where he eventually deployed a fresh driver and carded a pair of birdies to finish even-par 72, eight shots behind leader Harold Varner III at the 54-hole tournament with 12 teams of four players.

“It feels like you’re hitting a marshmallow, honestly,” Koepka said. “It’s a weird feeling. Feels like you’re hitting it on the bottom half of the club. I don’t know how much damage [is enough to be allowed a replacement], or whatever word they used. It’s just weird.”

Koepka continued to examine the club on the sixth hole before pulling out his cellphone. His caddie, Ricky Elliott, also was having a conversation on his cellphone, and shortly thereafter a member of Koepka’s team delivered a new driver to the No. 6 green.

But before Koepka could break in the new equipment, a rules official informed the first player to participate in a LIV Golf tournament immediately after winning a major championship that he wasn’t permitted to replace the driver at that time.

The official informed Koepka the damage needed to be “significant” to be permitted a replacement club. After the conversation, Koepka gave the backup driver to another member of his team to keep close by.

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At the tee at No. 7, Koepka had the compromised club in hand as he stared down the fairway of the 583-yard par 5, the longest hole on the front nine of a layout that covers almost 7,700 yards and requires even the game’s mightiest hitters, of which Koepka is one, to use driver.

His tee ball at the seventh drifted right almost instantly after contact and landed in the second cut of rough, making the bear of a hole all the more demanding. Koepka made par, then missed the fairway again at Nos. 8 and 9, directing his gaze at his driver face with each errant swipe.

“Golf’s a little bit behind the times in ruling,” he said. “Like, if it’s cracked, just replace it. If you damage it, you’re, I get it, out of anger or anything like that. I…