Inside the new rules for player behavior at the PGA Championship

Newton Square, Pa. – A new set of rules have been put in place to provide a structure for the best players in the world. Not the kind of rules that govern mitigation and leniency, but rather the rules of the rule. So many pros Treat.

As teased on Wednesday by Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s head of competitions, a “new code of conduct” has been put in place at this week’s PGA Championship that is the result of the latest collaboration between the four major championships and major tournaments. The policy, as Haigh said, ensures that “everyone behaves 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 Aronimink’s locker room, outlining code violations, including obvious no-nos like damaging property and less obvious ones like failing to be honest and even holding a hat back. Here’s the full list:

This comes a month after Sergio Garcia received the first such warning on Masters Sundayafter damaging the turf in an Augusta National tee box and breaking its steering shaft on the foot of a stool. Garcia apologized, but he wasn’t the only golfer to freak out that week.

Robert MacIntyre was similarly reprimanded at the Masters after he was caught raising his middle finger on the 15th green after missing a short putt into the water hazard. MacIntyre didn’t seem too concerned, given that he missed the cut and then posted an AI-generated photo of himself as a Masters gnome circling birds on Instagram.

Last summer, at the US Open, Rory McIlroy broke a tee box marker, which would have drawn a quick caution today. A few days later, at the same event, Wyndham Clark damaged a locker in the Oakmont locker rooman episode that had to be answered in the following months. All this happened afterwards Clark dropped his driver at last year’s PGA Championshiphitting a mark and snapping the shaft.

Of course, there is no point in a code of conduct without consequences. This week’s locker room post added a lot of important context to how the code will be maintained by the PGA of America. Each major (and tournament) is expected to maintain similar codes in general, but may implement and communicate them slightly differently. Aspects such as frequency of infringement, player intent and severity will determine how a governing body – in this case the PGA of America – will rule.

After the first offence, a warning will be issued, although if the “seriousness of the misconduct” is excessive, he can skip a warning immediately. After the second violation of the code, the offending player would receive a two-stroke penalty and a third violation would result in a player being disqualified. Players are similarly responsible for the actions of their corpses. However, information about such a violation is unlikely to be described with great clarity. At least not this week.

PGA of America officials confirmed that, in the event of a warning, no official alert would be issued. Of course, in the event of a second offense, those two added strikes will have to be accounted for. Garcia’s warning at Augusta National was issued by Jeff Yang, chairman of the Masters tournament committee, and confirmed later by the club.

The PGA Tour has developed a conduct policy and its collaboration with various majors led to implementations at the Masters and PGA of America events. The Tour itself has yet to ratify a policy as it has yet to go through the Tour governance process for approval. The same goes for the DP world tour. How it all looks in reality remains to be seen, but the PGA of America first used the code at its senior PGA Championship last month.