Today at the Senior Tour Event at RockBarn Golf Club in N.C.
some time in the middle of the round, Funks caddie went back to his bag
to get his 7 & 8 iron, for him to choose one to chip with. He chose one, chipped,
handed it back to his caddie, who put them back in his bag. Problem was, he had
inadvertently picked them out of Mike Goodes bag, same TM bag, same TM irons.
Two hole later, Goodes misses his clubs and he and his caddie see them in Funks
bag. 2 shot penalty according the the rules offical, lots of drama, lots of head shaking.
Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

another reason I play bridgestone irons and srixon balls...

Wow, that is unfortunate.

Ouch.

-mini

Right you are, Maybe I should have titled the topic, "See, I told you Taylormade
has too many staff players".

I heard Nobilo saying the penalty should have been four strokes since he carried the clubs for two holes. I hope that's not the case for Fred.

sorry, but i can't help but laugh when i hear touring pros do this. amazes me everytime, but its unfortunate nonetheless.

I would have known instantly those weren't my clubs the minute I held one even if they were identical. I can't believe he did this.

Good point.

I would be docking my caddy some money for being incompetent. That one oops might cost some big change on Sunday.

Then again,you are the pro and Funk is'nt.

those guys are old, give them a break

Ummm, they are the same exact clubs. how would you realize, the difference... o wait they are identical.

edit: spelling

Funk said that Goodes uses project x shafts and he uses dynamic gold, and he also mentioned that his grips are ribbed and Goodes' arent. I doubt id notice to be honest if i were in Funk's position...i mean your caddy hands you two clubs, pick one and hit a straightforward chip shot that didnt take much time to analyze. i dont think id notice the shaft but the lack of a rib might get me...but maybe not. i can see how this happened

I'm surprised that he didn't notice the feel of the irons if there were different shafts involved. It would be funny as hell if he came back next week with PX's in the bag! Seriously though, I can think of a few guys I would rather see this happen to than the Funky One.

hey guys..Mike Goodes' caddie here.Funk didnt have his regular caddie today.Mark took a couple weeks off so a friend helped him out. A very easy mistake for someone thats not out there on a regular basis.Fred was gonna putt it and then changed his mind and told his friend to grab the 7 and 8 irons.the bags were on the cart parked right next to each other.it happened on 13 didnt know until we got to the par 3 15th.I glanced over at Fred's bag and realized that his 7, 8 and 9 was in the bag but we had a 150 yard shot.i was wondering what he could be hitting then i noticed we were missing our 7 and 8 irons.

Wow! Interesting development to the thread. Welcome to GolfWRX Brack!

What are the odds of that?

thanks brack.
now, that's the inside scoop.

brack has only joined to try and get on SergioKSU's bag. It's a rare talent indeed to be able to tell the difference between identical clubs.

exactly right...senioritis ! A famous story at our club is about the foursome that strode
off the first tee. When they got about 250 out the elderly gentleman and 4 time club
champion )turned to his caddie and asked, " where is my ball son? " The caddie replied, " you didn't hit one sir " I know, cause I was the 12 year old caddie. It was a long way
back to the first tee and I have to this day never heard people laugh that hard.

Great story!

Hey! I resemble that remark

I just heard from Funk on TGC that it's the second time he's used someone else clubs. He used Olin Browne's at Disney once.

i feel smart now

A friend of mine has the exact same irons I do, they are essentially identical. I can tell which is mine the second I grab it. There are just very small subtleties about my own equipment that I can pick out. Kind of like how parents of identical twins know which is which. Now that I know the shafts and grips were different, it boggles my mind.

Wow you are truly hysterical. I'm sure you could figure out what I meant. I could easily tell the difference between MY 7 iron and one that has the same head, shaft, grip, etc. I just know my own clubs, is it that hard to comprehend?

Ridiculous.

And I'd also quite happily go on record as saying that I'd also be 100% confident that I'd never make that mistake. Clubs, even when they're shafted up the same and have the same grips are readily recognisable. There are little nuances to them that let you instinctively know that they're yours. The caddie's dropped a clanger, certainly, but if Funk's managed to use a club with a different grip and a stepless shaft without realising it, he needs to stop taking the valium. Unbelievable.

I once played with someone who left a shot short and then loudly proclaimed that he'd accidentally hit a 9 iron when he thought he'd got an 8 in his hands. I didn't stop laughing for about four holes and still can't fathom how you can manage it. The lad responsible has never lived it down.

I don't know which mistake was biggest: pulling the wrong club and not realising, or telling the rest of us that he'd done it.

I have a buddy that used his 3 iron when he thought he grabbed his 7 iron. How is THAT possible?

+1

it's amazing these guys remember their tee times , and don't spend most of the round telling the young spectators to get off the grass

I wish I could say it doesn't happen, but it does.

...I also can't say that I'd ever admit to it.

-mini

Not hard to comprehend at all. We are just so overcome with awe of your awesomeness.

Not hard to comprehend at all and even easier than telling the difference between identical clubs. It should equally not be that hard for you to recognise a bit of gentle ribbing based on semantics when it comes your way. Take a few deep breaths and relax.

Welcome to GolfWRX.

I started a warmup session one time hitting my PW. I hit about 10 shots and then switched to my 6 iron. I was on an unfamiliar range which was on a steep downslope, so my depth perception felt off, but I couldn't figure out why my 6-iron shots were so high and barely going farther than my PW. I hit about 15 balls before I realized I was swinging a 9 iron, not a 6!

On a similar note, I reached for my 9 iron on a par 3 with the pin on the front edge of the green. I hit the shot, and flew the green by a good 15 or so yards. Baffled, I looked and realized that I had indeed grabbed my 6 iron instead of the 9 iron.

if the clubs were identical (same grip, head, shaft, swing weight, etc) regardless of what kind of connection you have to your clubs, I dont think you would be able to tell the difference. Knowing that one has a project x shaft and a different grip, I gotta think he was asleep at the wheel, so to speak.

With respect, if I ever reach the stage where I can't tell the difference between a six-iron and a nine-iron I'm packing it in.

I might hit a six iron, the distance of a 9 iron on occasion,
but I will know its a six iron.

fred had just switch to the 09 tour preferred irons so this was the first week he had them.thats why he couldnt tell if he had his own club.

Thanks for the post. Now, just remember that you said that and don't EVER make a mistake.

I can certainly tell the difference between 31 and 43 degrees of loft, and the difference in the size of the heads. This was at a time when I was more interested in the drinking and socializing than I was in the actual golfing. I was serious about the drinking, and the golf course was a place to go to have a few on a nice day with some friends. This was several years ago, and is a complete 180 from me now.

If you were three sheets to the wind at the time I can easily understand it. Barring being legally blind or on the back nine of a drinking session with Oliver Reed though, I can't see how anyone can not catch on to the fact that the club in their hands isn't the one they thought it was - particularly when it's three clubs' worth of difference from the right one or when it's got a different grip and shaft.

Anyone that's managed it whilst sober has presumably also walked into the wrong house, driven the wrong way down a motorway and spent half an hour trying to unlock a different coloured car in the supermarket car park in their time. And probably has the surname Magoo.

Chas, I give you my word that if I ever manage it you'll be the first to know.

You have not reached 40 yet, have you? Or barely?
I would have been absolutely, totally 100% certain about never making such a mistake and would have written exactly the same thing until two weeks ago, when I wondered why I had come up 30 meters short of the green with a really well struck shot. I stopped wondering, when I put the club back in the bag. It was the 9, and not the 6. It still baffles me, but I ascribe it to my next birthday being the first one which will have me closer to 50 than to 40.

Bizarre that this thread came up this week... During my round last sunday i was supposed to be hitting a 9 iron into the green on a par 5. Instead i'd picked the six out of the bag and proceeded to fly the ball past the green into some rough on a bank. Now if you put a 6 iron in my hands and said " this is either a 6-iron or a 9-iron - which is it?" I'm certain I would get it right every time. However, once i'd pulled the club from the bag I reckon i was just focussed on the end result too much to notice that it was the wrong club. I still made par though.

Saying that though, I could well be going dolally - On the same hole the previous week i played the wrong ball during matchplay even after I'd looked at the ball and satisfied myself that it was mine. It was a frickin different brand with a different mark and everything. Derren Brown went on to win the match after that. Perhaps that particular hole is some kind of twilight zone where strange things happen to me.

I realise this post is making me sound like a complete dunce, but I assure you that is not quite the case - I just have occasional 'senior' moments.

lol i never even thought of that happening.. doesnt it have his name real big on the bag lol, oh well that stinks.

+1 to that.
And as for being aghast at someone not noticing the different shafts or slight variation in the grip - seriously ?! Maybe Funk was like, you know, 'focusing on the shot' or something way down the prioity list like that ! I think chapter one in Jack Nicklaus "Golf my way" is devoted to scrutinizing the shaft in each club the caddy hands you, isn't it ??
We civilians obsess far too much about the damn equipment - Pros just hit the damn thing.
Go Funkster !!

That cracks me up, guessing as a 12 yr old you didn't want to tell him before leaving the tee box?

It happens to the best of us. I'll admit hitting my 6i instead of my 9i on more than one occasion. Nothing worse than a ball heading straight for the pin only to be 3 clubs too long!

32 years old here and I have once hit a 9 iron instead of 6 iron when it mattered...perfect swing too..right in the water short of the green.

I also have several times pulled my 58* thinking it was my 52* or vice versa and either blown it over the green or been well short. After that I put different color grips on my two wedges (Green MCC on my 52 and red MCC on 58) haven't made that mistake since.

Played in the Pro-Am with Morris Hatalsky at this event...not a problem for us to keep up with each others bags....his was Adams and mine was Taylormade/Scratch. He did eye my wedges a couple of times though...

THEY MUST HAVE BEEN SMOKIN WEED OUT THERE TODAY

No doubt, Im with Serg all the way. When you spend alot of time tweaking your gear, you should know it with your eyes closed.

The lack of a rib in the grip should have registered.