Euro pro ripped for pounding club into ground to tee up ball (but should he be?)

Joakim Lagergren tied for third at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in St. Andrews, but the 27-year-old Swede also caused an etiquette debate when the European Tour shared a clip of him on the 7th tee on Sunday.

“No tee, no problem,” the Tour’s official account tweeted on Sunday, which showed Lagergren slamming his club into the tee box to create a slight mound for a makeshift tee, which he placed his ball on top of and then hit.

But Lagergren’s actions were not well received by some Twitter commenters, and dozens chimed in to rip Lagergren.

“No respect to the greenkeepers who spend hours getting the course perfect,” one wrote. Others called him “obnoxious” and an “idiot,” or said what he did was “unnecessary and disrespectful.”

But do golf fans have a reason to criticize Lagergren? LPGA legend Laura Davies does this often, and it’s legal and can help with control off the tee. And here’s one key point: Would the European Tour share the video if they disapproved? Probably not.

Lagergren’s T3 was his second top-seven finish in his last three starts.

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