Robert Streb broke his putter, so he used sand wedge for 9 holes to take Greenbrier lead

We’ve seen several players finish rounds with 13 clubs in the bag, one short of the allowable amount, this season on the PGA Tour. But it’s usually the result of some sort of angry destruction -- Rory McIlroy launching his iron in a lake or Greg Owen snapping the head off his fairway metal.

It’s also usually the destruction of a club you can work around or may use sparingly -- not, you know, a putter. But Robert Streb lost his flatstick at the NINTH hole, where the head snapped off after he tossed it towards his bag and caddie.

So Streb was screwed. He was hovering around the first page of the leaderboard -- not necessarily making a run but at least with a shot at contention. That seemed lost with the most important club in the bag now unusable and with his entire back nine to play.

After going through the options with his caddie, Streb opted to putt with a 56 degree sand wedge, which he said had the flattest edge. And he went nuts on the back nine, rolling in FIVE birdies for a 4-under 32 that pushed him to 13-under for the tournament and into a share of the clubhouse lead.

On his first two holes on the back nine, he threw darts into the green. The first settled just inches from the hole and the second inside five feet. He converted those birdies without the wedge-putter really being tested. The most amazing “putt” came at the 13th (video above), where he drained a 30 footer for the birdie. He got another one to drop at the 16th and all of a sudden, he sat on the lead with two holes to play.

There were a couple misses that looked like the result of using a club not intended for the purpose of putting. The worst came at the 17th. He was five feet out, but never even caught the edge of the cup.

That was a bogey that dropped him a shot back of Kevin Kisner who was in the house at 13-under. Streb got it back at the 18th, however, to match the clubhouse lead.

Amazingly, Streb was 12th in the field in strokes gained-putting, the Tour’s most accurate and advanced stat to measure that part of the game. Now he’ll wait to see if anyone of the remaining field can pass he and Kisner at 13-under. If not, he’ll be able to put a new putter in the bag for the playoff.

SB Nation video archives: Urban golfing with a U.S. Open champ (2012)