WATCH: Tour pro’s driver snaps in golf cart moments before playoff

It’s fair to assume this wild incident was not on anyone’s golfing bingo card in 2023.

A Ladies European Tour star’s driver was accidentally snapped en route to a playoff on Sunday after her golf cart became tangled in gallery rope.

Anne van Dam was heading back to the 18th at Dromoland Castle for the first playoff hole at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open when disaster struck.

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The Dutchwoman had just carded a closing birdie to join Smilla Tarning Soenderby and Lisa Pettersson at the top of the leaderboard and had jumped into a cart with a tournament official to return to the 18th tee.

It’s not as if Van Dam and the official were caught unaware by the rope either.

They thought they had safely negotiated it when the 27-year-old lifted it above the cart, but Van Dam made the grave error of letting go of the rope too early.

Wow how unfortunate is this and I’m lost for words @Annevandam driver snapped heading back to the 18th @GolfDromoland for playoff @LETgolf 😳 @KPMG pic.twitter.com/CR2klQY2JW

— David Foley PGA (@davidjfoley) September 3, 2023

The rope caught her golf bag which attached to the back of the cart, snapping the driver head clean off.

In a game so unpredictable and sometimes chaotic, we have still never seen anything quite like this.

And neither had five-time LET winner Van Dam, who was clearly as stunned as the rest of us over what had just transpired moments before she had to step on the tee to go and win a golf tournament.

Sky Sports commentator Richard Kaufman said: “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, I just can’t believe what I’ve seen.”

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Van Dam was then forced to take three-wood on the closing par-5. Impressively, she did manage to find the green in two shots to give herself a chance of an audacious eagle, but came up just short.

Denmark’s Soenderby, meanwhile, who had just shot a 10-under 62 to snatch a place in the playoff, clinched her maiden LET title with eagle.

Van Dam had been allowed to replace her driver, but Ryan French (Monday Q Info) reported that her main driver had been broken in transit before the event and the one she had been using was her back-up.

We can note this one down as a case of “it just wasn’t meant to be” for Van Dam.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.