Players competing at the PGA Championship have been issued with fresh locker room regulations ahead of the tournament. The PGA Championship is now underway.
It’s the second major of the season after The Masters, which saw Rory McIlroy claim the title. The tournament has begun in intriguing fashion with one competitor penalised after arriving late for his tee time.
Cameron Smith made a strong start to the opening round, having carded 70 or higher in each of his previous 19 major championship rounds, stretching back to round two of the 2024 PGA Championship. He’s up against the world’s finest at the tournament, including Scottie Scheffler, but their performances aren’t the only concern after the new regulations were implemented.
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“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.
View 2 ImagesThe PGA Championship got underway on Thursday. (Image: Michael Reaves, Getty Images)
“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 and when Bob MacIntyre raised his middle finger during play.
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Max Homa finds himself in contention for the trophy this week following Phil Mickelson’s withdrawal, and he addressed the significance of proper conduct at the RBC Heritage, held immediately after the Masters.
“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.”