Rory McIlroy throws his club into a pond during the second round of the 2015 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. Screenshot from PGA Tour YouTube
The 6th hole (par 4) of the first round at the US Open. Joaquin Niemann, “Chile’s golf hero,” sent his tee shot out of bounds (OB) twice. His fifth shot landed in an unmanaged area. After arriving at the spot where his ball came to rest, Niemann kicked away the white flag marking the ball’s position and then hurled his iron with full force. It flew 50 yards. Niemann recorded a 9 on the hole with seven shots to reach the green and two putts.
But Niemann’s score was later corrected to 11. The United States Golf Association (USGA), which organized the tournament, judged Niemann’s behavior to be a violation of “serious misconduct” and imposed the general penalty (two strokes).
The basis for the USGA’s two-stroke penalty against Niemann was Rule 1.2b. It states that a committee may set standards of player behavior in a code of conduct and adopt it as a local rule, and may include penalties for violations of the code of conduct.
Before 2019, no penalty could be imposed for a player’s act of throwing a club or striking the ground with a club. Disqualification was only possible for “serious misconduct” such as deliberately damaging a green. Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) once threw a club into a pond at the 2015 World Golf Championships Cadillac Championship, and many other players engaged in similar behavior, but no penalty strokes could be assessed. The 2019 modernization of the rules established a basis for each committee to set a code of conduct and to assess penalty strokes for violations.
Even after the rule revision, cases of penalty strokes for code of conduct violations were rarely reported on major tours, until the USGA gave Niemann two penalty strokes at this year’s US Open. The USGA, which governs golf rules worldwide together with Britain’s R&A, is expected to influence other tour organizations with this sanction.
Domestic golf organizations have also established their own codes of conduct. The Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Tour imposes sanctions through fines rather than penalty strokes, setting fines such as 1 million won for broadcast footage of failing to rake a bunker or smoking in a non-smoking area, and 300,000 won for failing to rake a bunker. Unsavory arguments between players during play also draw fines of 200,000 to 10 million won.
The Korea Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour has had two cases in the past two years in which it judged a player’s conduct to be improper and actually imposed penalty strokes. One of them involved striking the ground with a club. The Korea Golf Association (KGA), which mainly organizes tournaments for amateurs, considers drinking or smoking by players under 19 to be “serious misconduct” and disqualifies them.
Golf is a mental game. Some mental coaches advise players to let go and forget immediately when a round is not going well or when they become angry. Bottling it up inside can ruin an entire round. In that sense, even when relieving stress, players should not harm others or make onlookers frown. Throwing a club can not only result in a two-stroke penalty but, if directed toward another player or the gallery, can be judged as serious misconduct and even lead to disqualification.
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