US Open: LIV Golf’s Joaquin Niemann surprised by ‘misconduct’ penalty for swinging golf club at Shinnecock Hills | Golf News
Joaquin Niemann insists he will “learn” from two penalties at the US Open, although he was surprised by the severity of the penalty for throwing the golf club.
The Chilean was on par in his four-hole round on Thursday evening when he sent two shots out of bounds at the fourth and sixth, before play was suspended due to darkness at Shinnecock Hills.
Niemann found more thick grass on his next attempt before chipping the next shot – the sixth – into the fairway, then hit a frustrated sand wedge before returning the next morning to hit his way to the green and two-putt for a quintuple-bogey nine.
The 27-year-old was penalized for “misbehavior” under rule 1.2b, which saw the back nine become a septuple-bogey 11 in an opening-round 78, with Niemann only informed of the penalty shortly before his second round.
“I finished my round this morning, I signed my scorecard, and then the referee came to me and said, ‘I need to talk to you’,” Niemann told reporters after his second round.
“I knew I was bad but I feel like everyone has something, and it’s never going to be as big as a double penalty.
“They thought with the whole committee that it was the right decision to give me two penalties. Obviously I was trying to protest, to try not to get two penalties, but it was their decision.
“I feel like I wouldn’t be happy to see players swinging clubs and behaving like that, yes, I agree. I’m the first to judge myself if I don’t behave well on the golf course – that was not very good behavior on my part.
“I felt like I got punished a little bit with two penalties, but it is what it is. I’ll learn from it.”
Niemann added later: “They blew the horn [to suspend play for bad light] but after hitting that shot, all the frustration came over me. I had my stick with me and I couldn’t resist throwing it away. There was nobody there but I’m not proud of it.”
He responded smartly by posting five birdies in the first six holes of his second round, where he joined Collin Morikawa in equaling the lowest score of the morning wave with a five-under 65.
It [penalty] definitely helped me a little bit to have a better round today,” added Niemann. “Everything was fine. I hit some good shots. I came out with an aggressive attitude, so it worked out.
Sometimes, especially in these tournaments, it could have gone the other way, this time it worked.
What is the law and who has been punished before?
Incidents deemed to be infractions include inappropriate language and abuse of clubs or courses, with Niemann’s punishment the latest attempt by golf’s governing bodies to crack down on bad behaviour.
The Masters used it for the first time on Sergio Garcia earlier this year, after the Spaniard hit his club twice and broke his driver by throwing it into the water cooler during the final round.
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Sergio Garcia was spoken to by a tournament official after the former Masters champion hit a bogey in his final round at Augusta National.
The policy used at The Masters sees players first receiving a warning, with a second breach leading to a two-stroke penalty before a third leading to disqualification.
The USGA’s gross misconduct policy states that if a player’s conduct – or that of his game – is “far from what is expected in the spirit of the game of golf”, officials can assess two penalties or disqualify the player.
A statement from the USGA said: “Joaquin Niemann was assessed two penalty strokes for swinging a club on the sixth hole during Round 1. This action was determined to be a serious misconduct under Rule 1.2b.”
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