Rules Review: My driver started rattling. Can I replace it during a round?

When Stephan Jaeger’s driver started acting up mid-round at US Open qualifying, officials ruled he couldn’t swap it, the damage wasn’t obvious enough. Here’s what actually counts as “damaged” under the Rules of Golf, and what you can and can’t do about it mid-round.

Leaderboard

Baycurrent Classic - 2026
Pos Player Tot Thru Rnd
-Beau Hossler--1
-Pi Coody--1
-Ren Yonezawa--1
-Keith Mitchell--1
-Michael Kim--1
-Ben Kohles--1
-Denny McCarthy--1
-Max Greyserman--1
-Keita Nakajima--1
-Mac Meissner--1
-Kristoffer Ventura--1
-Sang-hee Lee--1
-Michael Thorbjornsen--1
-Matt McCarty--1
-Stephan Jaeger--1
-Michael Brennan--1
-Ricky Castillo--1
-Billy Horschel--1
-Nico Echavarria--1
-Maverick McNealy--1
-Alex Smalley--1
-Min Woo Lee--1
-Jordan Spieth--1
-Sungjae Im--1
-Aldrich Potgieter--1
-Nick Taylor--1
-Taylor Pendrith--1
-Jacob Bridgeman--1
-Collin Morikawa--1
-Xander Schauffele--1
-Jackson Suber--1
-Takumi Kanaya--1
-Kosuke Sunagawa--1
-Matt Wallace--1
-John Parry--1
-Jinichiro Kozuma--1
-Kevin Roy--1
-Johnny Keefer--1
-Yoshinori Fujimoto--1
-Christiaan Bezuidenhout--1
-Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen--1
-Hiroshi Iwata--1
-Taylor Moore--1
-Ryo Hisatsune--1
-Yusaku Hosono--1
-Patrick Rodgers--1
-Chandler Phillips--1
-Aguri Iwasaki--1
-Steven Fisk--1
-Kurt Kitayama--1
-Max Homa--1
-Sahith Theegala--1
-Jordan Smith--1
-Tomohiro Ishizaka--1
-Wyndham Clark--1
-Justin Thomas--1
-Adam Scott--1
-Ryan Gerard--1
-Kevin Yu--1
-Tony Finau--1
-Keegan Bradley--1
-Hideki Matsuyama--1
-Rickie Fowler--1
-Brian Harman--1
-Davis Thompson--1
-Tom Hoge--1
-Doug Ghim--1
-Zach Bauchou--1
-Koshin Nagasaki--1
-Lee Hodges--1
-Andrew Putnam--1
-David Lipsky--1
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