In most cases each beard has its own skin scale all the way around it. Split beards have no scale between the split and shows that both sides have been attached at some point.

Never less Great bird and congrats on a dandy...

I shot one w/ a beard very similar to that this year. Looks like it got cut or broke off maybe over the winter w/ ice or something.
Nice beard nontheless. Great hooks. Nice bird.

Single beard. Typically, there is a skin between each beard if multiple beards. Here is a close-up of a triple bearded Tom I took a couple years ago.

Very nice birds fellas!!!

Looks to me like the beard could have possibly been frozen from cold winter in NY and 1/2 has been broken off seen nit here in Ohio many times