I remember seeing a photo of Jack Nicklaus breaking a club playing out of the trees at Royal Hobart in the Australian Open, possibly in the early 70’s.
In my case, I was at my home course & had driven into the trees on the 17th with a good score going. I had the trunk of a tree on my follow through. My only two options were to play a full shot with a 6 iron over the bushes in front of me or chip out backwards about 50 yards. Remembering the photo I had seen of Nicklaus, I thought I would give the club breaking shot a go. I concentrated on making a full swing through the ball, making solid contact with the ball & the tree a split second later.
I watched the ball fly 150 yards to the front of the green, then looked down to my club to see the bottom 12 inches of the shaft & head dangle for a few seconds then drop to the ground.
I was surprised how little of the impact of the tree I felt. Maybe I timed the tree as well as I timed the ball.