Competitors at the PGA Championship were presented with a fresh set of locker room regulations ahead of the tournament getting underway this week. The PGA Championship is now in full swing.
It’s the season’s second major following The Masters, where Rory McIlroy claimed the trophy. The tournament has made for a compelling opening with one player penalised after arriving late to his tee time.
Cameron Smith burst out of the blocks in the first round, having posted 70 or higher in each of his previous 19 major championship rounds, stretching back to round two of the 2024 PGA Championship. He faces the finest players in the world at the tournament, including Scottie Scheffler, though their on-course displays aren’t the only concern following the new rule’s enforcement.
“The player code of conduct is something that has been a collaborative effort among all the majors and the major Tours: DP World Tour; European Tour,” said Kerry Haigh, the Chief Champions Officer for the PGA of America.
“We had a number of meetings to discuss the issue and how we could come up with a program that we feel is fair and effective.”
“So that certainly from our standpoint, which is all I can speak from the championship way, we have adopted the code of conduct, similar to pace of play, in that the policy is written.
“If a player does something sort of egregious, unfortunately, we would give a warning to that player, and if they were to do it again, there would be a two-shot penalty. And there’s a sort of number of sort of examples in the code that sort of gives us some guidance.
“But it’s really for the good of the game that we’re implementing it to try and make sure everyone is behaving appropriately, professionally, and as we would want our children and people watching to see the major championship.”
The Masters witnessed several code of conduct breaches, most notably when Sergio Garcia snapped his club in frustration and when Bob MacIntyre made an obscene gesture during play.
Max Homa finds himself in contention for the trophy this week following Phil Mickelson’s withdrawal, and he addressed the significance of on-course behaviour at the RBC Heritage immediately after the Masters concluded.
“I don’t like when people break clubs. I don’t like when people beat up the golf course because we deal with it, and I think the breaking clubs makes us look very, very spoiled,” Homa said.
“… I definitely think beating up a golf course would be probably tops just because the rest of us have to play it.”