NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — A new set of rules are set to provide some structure to the best golfers in the world. Not the kind of rules that govern penalty drops and relief, but rather rules of decorum. How pros behave.
As was teased out Wednesday by Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s chief competitions officer, a new “code of conduct” is in place at this week’s PGA Championship that is the result of recent collaboration between the four major championships and the main tours. The policy, as Haigh put it, ensures that “everyone is behaving appropriately, professionally, and as we would want our children and people watching to see the major championship.”
Fourteen examples of “unacceptable behavior” are posted in the Aronimink locker room, outlining breaches of the code, including obvious no-no’s like damaging property and less obvious ones like failing to be honest and even wearing a hat backward. Here’s the full list:
This comes a month after Sergio Garcia received the first such warning on Masters Sunday, after damaging turf on an Augusta National tee box and breaking his driver shaft over the leg of a bench. Garcia apologized, but he wasn’t the only golfer gone wild that week.
Robert MacIntyre was similarly reprimanded at the Masters after he was caught raising his middle finger at the 15th green after missing a shot short into the water hazard. MacIntyre didn’t seem too bothered, considering he missed the cut and then posted to Instagram an AI-generated photo of himself as a bird-flipping Masters gnome.
Last summer, at the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy smashed a tee box marker, which would draw a quick warning today. A few days later, at the same event, Wyndham Clark damaged a locker in Oakmont’s locker room, an episode to which he had to answer in the following months. That all took place after Clark threw his driver at last year’s PGA Championship, hitting a sign and snapping the shaft.
Of course, there is no meaning to a code of conduct without consequences. This week’s locker-room posting added plenty of relevant context to how the code will be upheld by the PGA of America. Each major (and tour) is expected to maintain similar codes in general, but may implement and communicate them slightly differently. Aspects like frequency of breach, player intent and severity will determine how a governing body — in this case the PGA of America — will rule.
Upon first breach, a warning will be issued, though if the “severity of misconduct” is excessive, it could immediately bypass a warning. Upon second breach of the code, the infracting player would receive a two-shot penalty, and a third breach would result in a player being disqualified. Players are similarly held responsible for the actions of their caddies. The information of such a breach is not likely to be spelled out with great clarity, however. At least not this week.
PGA of America officials confirmed that, in the event of a warning, no official alert would be made. Obviously, in the event of a second breach, those added two strokes would need to be explained. Garcia’s warning at Augusta National was issued by Geoff Yang, the Masters’ chairman of competitions committee, and later confirmed by the club.
The PGA Tour has been developing a conduct policy and its collaboration with the various majors led to implementations at the Masters and PGA of America events. The Tour itself has not yet ratified a policy as it still needs to go through the Tour’s governance process for approval. Same goes for the DP World Tour. How that all looks in reality remains to be seen, but the PGA of America first used this code at its Senior PGA Championship last month.
