How did a fellow tour pro break Viktor Hovland's driver?

At this week's PGA Tour event at Mayakoba Viktor Hovland had the worst possible start on Wednesday when Danny Lee somehow managed to snap his Ping driver.

The pair were on the range at El Camaleon and, as is the norm these days, Lee was working on finding a few extra yards.

“He was just doing a speed session behind me, and we were just talking,” Hovland said. “He asked me if I could hit some on his quad and I hit some drives as hard as I could and then he went back to hitting his and like I was just kind of a — I was just curious; I wanted to see if he could get his ball speed up with my driver that was a little longer.

“Yeah, and then the rest is history.”

As was the Ping G425.

“That was very unexpected,” said Lee. “I felt so sorry for him. If I had a spare driver, I would have given it to him, but I didn’t.”

“I don’t know where it snapped or how he snapped it, but I just look up after he hit the shot and it was in pieces,” Hovland added.

The good news was that James Hahn had a spare Ping, there was no tour van in Mexico, and it went straight in the bag.

“He was nice enough to lend me one of his back-ups. It’s a little bit shorter, it’s a different shaft, but honestly, almost helped me because it’s a little shorter. It probably goes 10 yards shorter, but I just felt like I could really hit it a little lower and a little straighter. So I’m hitting that thing really well.”