Entering Sunday, Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia had no shot of successful the 2026 Masters, however he nonetheless made a scene on the ultimate day of the event.
Garcia hit his tee shot right into a bunker on the second gap tee field of Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership in Georgia. He clearly knew it was an errant shot as he started smashing his driver on the bottom and towards a cooler. Through the course of the tantrum, he broke the membership by snapping its head.
The principles of golf state {that a} participant can’t exchange a membership if they’ve abused it. That appeared to go away him much more outraged. To take out his frustration, he carried fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm’s golf equipment whereas his caddie swept the sand bunker.
Some might have discovered Garcia’s outburst amusing, however the event organizers did not.
The Masters punished Sergio Garcia for his tantrum
Per ESPN, Masters chairman Geoff Yang spoke with Garcia at gap No. 4, issuing him a code-of-conduct warning, the primary within the event’s 93-year historical past.
The PGA Tour is implementing a stricter code of conduct in 2026 to maintain short-tempered golfers like Garcia in examine. On the remaining spherical of the 2025 British Open, he snapped his driver in half on gap No. 2 and performed the remainder of the day with out the membership. And he was disqualified from the 2019 Saudi Worldwide for damaging the greens.
Just like the Masters, the opposite majors (the U.S. Open and British Open) function independently of the PGA Tour, however they’re anticipated to make use of its code of conduct.
After a event supervisor points the primary warning, a participant could be topic to additional penalties. A second violation ends in a two-shot penalty, whereas a 3rd results in a disqualification. We’ll see if the brand new guidelines assist Garcia higher management his mood. If he retains taking part in poorly, they could not make a distinction.
Garcia’s final PGA Tour win was on the 2020 Sanderson Farms Championship, and he hasn’t received a serious because the 2017 Masters. After all, he flipped to LIV Golf in 2022, however he has received simply two occasions on that tour.
Getting into Sunday, he had shot 221 (+8) and was 16 pictures behind co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Cameron Younger (-11). He shot a 75 throughout his remaining spherical.
