1911 Fail!

I took my 1911 to the range to work on aimed double taps. Just over 100 rounds into it, I emptied a mag and looked down to find the guide rod on the bench. GRRR!! Taking it apart, I can see the head of the guide rod was no longer connected. I read on the interwebs that you can run a 1911 without a guide rod, but for the life of me I can't figure out how... at least with this micro compact. There is no standard rod plug, instead it uses a reverse rod plug and depends on what looks like a captured rod with a taper on the muzzle end. GRRR!! Gotta call Springfield tomorrow. Very annoying.

UPDATE Called SA. They informed me that the whole guide rod / recoil spring assembly is a captured spring unit and comes as one piece. That makes sense. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I would put it together. Ordered a new one and an extra just in case of zombie attack.