FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Stanford freshman Daulet Tuleubayev was the hero for the Cardinal in their semifinal match against Vanderbilt at Blessings Golf Club.
The Almaty, Kazakhstan native hit a putt on the 18th green from outside 20 feet at the 2019 NCAA Div. I Men's Golf Championship to send Stanford to its first-ever match-play final and a chance to win a ninth national title.
However, the putt wasn't the craziest thing to happen to Tuleubayev in his semifinal match.
"First drive I pushed it a little to the right, and it sounded funny," Tuleubayev said after defeating Harrison Ott 1-up. "I didn't think of it too much. Coach said, 'Was that a crack?'"
Turns out, it was. Stanford head coach Conrad Ray realized the driver head was cracked when the two walked down the fairway. Ray and Tuleubayev debated on whether to sub the driver head out or not.
Things got interesting when they talked to the rules official.
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The official explained that there's an explicit local rule that states you can replace a damaged driver, but not a cracked driver, which Tuleubayev thought "was a little ridiculous."
Ray described the crack as "a hairline fracture, four inches across the top" of the driver head. Apparently, that wasn't good enough.
"Funny enough, I had to hit it four more times until it completely broke down," said Tuleubayev.
"He hit the tee ball on No. 2 and it sounded like a shotgun going off," Ray explained, "and then it started to cave in."
Finally, with a third hit, a hole opened on the top of the driver head.
"If this isn't broken, I don't know what is," Ray said to the official.
A huge crater in the head formed, which then made the driver head damaged enough to be swapped out.
Ray texted a former teammate who's now a Ping rep and had one of his players run to the pro shop to get a couple other heads. Three club heads were considered, but none were quite his driver. Tuleubayev was concerned a different head would throw off his ball flight.
"I thought I could get three more shots out of (the broken head), but then the Arkansas coach came up clutch and I got the exact same club head as mine, with the exact same loft," said Tuleubayev. "I thought, 'awesome.' It was just in time for me to hit a couple more good drives on 14, 15 and 16."
After hitting the clutch putt, Tuleubayev and Ray went to the range to work with the new driver because, believe it or not, this one also has a crack on the hosel.
What is it with Tuleubayev and broken driver heads?
"It's the first time," he said with a laugh, noting he's had the Ping G400 for a couple years. "I just like it so much."
"It was just one of those wild matches," said Ray, who said Tuleubayev's heroics on the final hole were "kind of been his destiny" because of his love for Stanford.
Ray then recalled the first time he met Tuleubayev, when the young freshman in high school with broken English just walked into his office and asked "how do I get to Stanford?"
"I didn't even have a meeting with him," said Ray, who advised Tuleubayev to move to a warm climate and get a good swing coach.
"He enrolled at Harker, which is right down the street, cold-calls Butch Harmon and the rest is history," explained Ray. "Four years later, he's on my roster as a freshman."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2019/05/29/ncaa-championships-stanford-daulet-tuleubayev-semifinal-match-broken-driver/39523081/
2019-05-29 10:33:00Z
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