It’s a common practice at tournament stops for players to leave their clubs in on-site storage at the course rather than lugging them back and forth between rounds. At last week’s HNA French Open, though, the equipment multiple players found in the morning was different from how they had left it the night prior.
Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger tied for 27th at the European Tour event, but he wrote a Facebook post following his second-round 69 that the settings on his driver had been tampered with.
“Struggle at the end but happy to have scored in the 60s,” Wiesberger wrote. “Found out during the round that the settings on my Titleist driver have been changed by somebody (this also happens to other Players today apparently). Never happened to me before.”
Wiesberger later added a follow-up post, explaining that, “A few clubs have been altered with this week. One of them looks to have been mine.”
One of the other victims was Scotland’s Duncan Stewart, who missed the cut after rounds of 69-78 at Le Golf National and told bunkered.co.uk that Wiesberger’s post made him realize that his driver, too, had been tweaked without his knowledge.
“I asked one of the Callaway reps to have a look at my driver because it wasn’t going as well as normal,” Stewart said. “He put it back to what should’ve been neutral and the grip was around the wrong way – and it had only been re-gripped two or three weeks ago.”
When reached for comment by Golf Digest, the European Tour offered a response from tournament director David Garland, who also serves as the circuit’s director of operations.
“We were made aware of two instances where players thought the settings on their clubs may have been changed,” Garland said. “We therefore reminded all players to check their equipment prior to teeing off.”
Source: Internet
