Rory McIlroy snaps driver as freak accident at BMW Championship leaves star red-faced

Rory McIlroy inadvertently snapped his driver in two during the final round at the BMW Championship on Sunday. A freak incident took the Northern Irishman completely by surprise in Colorado as he looked to fight his way towards a top-10 finish.

It's been a bad week for McIlroy's driver. On Friday, a tee shot at the 17th which didn't much take the 35-year-old's fancy saw him launch his club into a lake, which he quickly retrieved after the frustration had subsided.

Sunday's incident was less fiery but still saw a driver bear the brunt. McIlroy bent down to pick up his tee on the 9th after hitting an errant shot which seemed destined for the water but instead settled on a grass verge.

With the driver shaft bending underneath him, McIlroy applied too much pressure and it snapped in half. McIlroy then produced perhaps his best moment of the four-day event with his very next shot.

Stepping up to an awkward lie on the edge of a stream, following his wayward tee shot, the four-time major winner was forced to take his shoes and socks off, and swing while standing in the water.

With an irregular stance and no movement in his lower body, McIlroy somehow managed to find the green, much to the delight of the jubilant crowd who, against the odds, watched him walk off with a par.

Earlier in an action-packed final round at Castle Pines Golf Club, Matt Fitzpatrick also endured driver drama. The Englishman pleaded with rules officials to allow him to change drivers after finding a crack in his club face, but they deemed that the damage was not significant enough.

Fitzpatrick then hit his worst tee shot of the day, with the ball hooking low, left and into the crowd. "Well, that's about 50 yards shorter than it's gone all day," he snapped.

Another official came to look at the club as Fitzpatrick made his case, saying: "There is an obvious crack there which is causing a defect in the ball flight. I'm going to have to use 3 Wood for the rest of the day, that's what you're telling me? This is outrageous."

Fitzpatrick ended up finishing way down the leaderboard and missed out on qualifying for the Fedx Cup finale at the Tour Championship next week.