{"id":93114,"date":"2026-05-15T03:22:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T03:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/inside-the-new-rules-policing-player-behavior-at-pga-championship\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T03:22:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T03:22:59","slug":"inside-the-new-rules-policing-player-behavior-at-pga-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/inside-the-new-rules-policing-player-behavior-at-pga-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the new rules policing player behavior at PGA Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
\"Getty
Robert MacIntyre was reportedly reprimanded after the Masters for behavior that was a breach of Augusta National's code of conduct.Getty Images<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. \u2014 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<\/em>. <\/p>\n

As was teased out Wednesday by Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America\u2019s chief competitions officer, a new \u201ccode of conduct\u201d is in place at this week\u2019s 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 \u201ceveryone is behaving appropriately, professionally, and as we would want our children and people watching to see the major championship.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fourteen examples of \u201cunacceptable behavior\u201d are posted in the Aronimink locker room, outlining breaches of the code, including obvious no-no\u2019s like damaging property and less obvious ones like failing to be honest and even wearing a hat backward. Here\u2019s the full list: <\/p>\n

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\"PGA
The behavioral examples posted in this week\u2019s locker room outlining the player Code of Conduct.<\/span>Sean Zak<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This comes a month after Sergio Garcia received the first such warning on Masters Sunday<\/a>, after damaging turf on an Augusta National tee box and breaking his driver shaft<\/a> over the leg of a bench. Garcia apologized, but he wasn\u2019t the only golfer gone wild that week. <\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s locker room<\/a>, an episode to which he had to answer in the following months. That all took place after Clark threw his driver at last year\u2019s PGA Championship<\/a>, hitting a sign and snapping the shaft. <\/p>\n

Of course, there is no meaning to a code of conduct without consequences. This week\u2019s 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 \u2014 in this case the PGA of America \u2014 will rule. <\/p>\n

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\"PGA
Implementation of the PGA Championship\u2019s \u201cCode of conduct.\u201d <\/span>Sean Zak<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Upon first breach, a warning will be issued, though if the \u201cseverity of misconduct\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s warning at Augusta National was issued by Jeff Yang, the Masters\u2019 chairman of competitions committee, and later confirmed by the club<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by GOLF.com \/\/ GOLF Magazine (@golf_com)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The post Inside the new rules policing player behavior at PGA Championship<\/a> appeared first on Golf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert MacIntyre was reportedly reprimanded after the Masters for behavior that was a breach of Augusta National's code of conduct.Getty Images NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. \u2014 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10511,6830,3249,3236,18884,1623],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}