Let’s get ahead of any pushback up front. We’re certainly not stating that you should be destroying golf clubs all willy-nilly. If you miss a gimme and break your putter on the regular, might we recommend calming down? Or perhaps therapy?

And yet, once in a blue moon, murdering a club might be exactly what you (and your temper) need. Back in 2015, our very own Dave Shedloski dove into the world of Golf Club Fury and spoke to a few major champs who all agreed on what was once thought to be a no-no: “Sometimes a club just has to die.”

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As Shedloski ingeniously puts it, “The tradition of altering a club’s configuration likely dates to only a few minutes after the first club was invented.” If you’ve ever broken a club, you’re far from the first … and odds are you won’t be the last. At least you’re in good company with tour pros of all generations admitting that sometimes you just have to let your rage take over.

“Eventually the game is going to get to you. The game is going to beat you to death because it’s so hard. I think it’s a natural reaction to beat something in response,” said Paul Goydos, a man who once shot a 59 on a PGA Tour event. “If you don’t feel like taking out your anger on a club from time to time, you’re probably not doing it right.”

“Destroying a club is almost healthy sometimes,” admitted Ben Curtis, the surprise winner of the 2023 Open Championship. “I honestly think that’s what’s missing for me now. Before I had kids, I had a release. I don’t want my kids—or any other kids—to see me behave that way, throwing a club or what have you, so I’ve stopped. But I think that’s why I haven’t played as well recently. You have to have a release. You play with fire out there, and a little bit of a release keeps the fire under control.”

MORE: Confession: I break clubs when I’m mad

Not only are these pros confessing to an inanimate kill, but they’ve even gone so far as to say that sometimes it’s for the best. These attacks occasionally even happen off the course with David Feherty revealing that he ran over his clubs with his car after triple-bogeying the final hole to lose the 1981 Irish National PGA Championship. “I drove over them lengthwise so that I got all of them from grip to clubhead,” he said. “Unfortunately, I left my watch in there.” Similarly, Ernie Els burnt one of his clubs with the head ultimately “melting off” after what we can reasonably assume was not his best round.

These episodes have become commonplace—well, maybe not with a car—on the PGA Tour, so much so that there have been bets on what player will commit “murder” first. Paul Azinger said that he and Mark Calcavecchia had a standing $100 bet on who would break a club first. The wager never made it into the Florida Swing.

Just a few months ago, Golf Digest’s illustrious Shane Ryan made a simultaneously healthy and unhealthy confession: “I break clubs when I’m mad.”

“It will sound like a rationalization, but on some level, I think controlled outbursts on the course are a necessary emotional release valve,” Ryan wrote. “Simply trying to get better at a frustrating game puts you on the same level as literally everybody else who isn’t a professional, and whether you’re scratch or an 11 or struggling to break 100 for the first time, I think you have the same right to get mad.”

If you keep all of this anger inside, you’re never going to play your best golf. It frankly can’t be healthy for your outrage to grow and grow, as if you’re the Hulk, but to never smash some stuff. This is your permission slip to smash a club every once in a while.

Sam Weinman for his Low Net newsletter dove into throwing golf clubs and came to a similar conclusion. “It’s all about harnessing your emotions constructively while not losing sight of the bigger picture,” he wrote. “But a word of advice about golfers who get hot once in a while: Don’t tell us it’s just a game. That’s bound to piss us off even more.”

Just a bit more advice, if you’re going to end the life of a club, maybe you should be the one doing it. Don’t let your caddie get the chance and take away your opportunity for “release.” Please let this incredible Rocco Mediate anecdote from the our 2015 archive story be a warning.

Mediate has been a party to countless burials at sea, including one conducted during the 2007 Fry’s.com Open in Las Vegas, when he exhorted his caddie, Martin Courtois, to pitch it into the lake at the 12th hole at TPC Summerlin. We’re waiting for Scott Verplank to putt out, and I said it to Martin twice: “Throw the effing putter into the effing lake.” But I’m thinking he’s not going to do it. All of a sudden, I see this thing out of the corner of my eye. He whirlybirded it in. I’m like,”Did you really throw that in the water?” He thinks I’m going to fire him. Why would I fire him? He did what I said.

In case you break a golf club Hot List 2024 Hot List: Best new golf clubs, equipment reviews Hot List Extra Whether with a fitter or by yourself, getting the right putter is more science than art Low Net New golf club or a better swing? When it should and shouldn’t be a choice

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com