If Emma Talley had to do it again, maybe it would have been better if she really unloaded, a hard kick of her left shoe rather than a light nudge of her toe. At least the unusual rules situation that occurred in the first round of the KPMG PGA Women’s Championship would have felt like a punishment worthy of the crime.
On the sixth green of the Congressional Country Club, her 15th hole of the day, a frustrated Talley bogeyed and repeated one of her habits when she slammed her putter against her foot. But this time, the move mistakenly loosened his putter’s clubhead. For the rest of the round, the former NCAA and United States amateur champion used a 58-degree pitching wedge to putt, bogging two of her final three holes to shoot a six-for-78.
“Yeah, it was just a freak accident,” said Talley, who finished the day tied for 114th, 14 strokes behind leader In Gee Chun. “I hit my putter on my toe but it wasn’t even that hard, that’s why I’m so upset because I wish I broke it out of madness, but it wasn’t even that hard. C was what sucked.”
Under Rule 4.1Talley had the option of continuing to use the damaged club (as part of a rules overhaul in 2019) but she could not replace it as she was the one who caused the damage.
Immediately after finding out what she had done, Talley burst into tears, with the emotions continuing during her post-round media interview. She explained that it was mostly out of embarrassment over the situation.
“Obviously you want to shed some light when you’re here, and like, if they didn’t see what happened, they’d think I probably broke it on my leg,” Talley said.
