Joaquin Niemann’s frustration reached its peak midway through the par-4 6th at Shinnecock, resulting in an unprecedented penalty that has cost him 24 spots. After two out-of-bounds drives, a third shot into the grass, he finally found a fairway on his fourth shot before getting angry and throwing his sand wedge about 50 yards. After finishing his round the next morning, the 27-year-old accepted the consequence, but his coach, Pete Cowen, is still challenging the decision.

“It’s arbitrary because they picked him out of a load of people who threw clubs yesterday and gave him a two-shot penalty. It depends on whether you like him or you don’t like him; it’s two shots if you don’t like him, or it’s not two shots because he’s a decent guy, or he hasn’t thrown it as far or whatever. So, you can’t do that. It’s either got to be two shots for throwing a club for everybody or not,” Cowen said, as reported by Brentley Romine of Golf Channel.

Cowen, the former coach of Sergio Garcia, did not elaborate on his claim of “load of people who threw their clubs”, but per Golf Channel, he saw “three other players” do so. However, he did not name them. Also, at that time, there were no other official videos or eyewitness accounts of the same.

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The Athletic quoted an eyewitness named Tristan Chang, who saw the entire incident. According to him, Niemann was asking for relief after his third shot landed near ants. After being denied, he got back onto the fairway with his sixth shot. During this sequence of events, he even kicked a spotter’s flag away in the presence of a rules official before tossing his club. Although no one was standing near where the club landed, the officials saw it as excessive misconduct.

The penalty resulted in Niemann carding a septuple bogey, which saw him end round one at 78 (+8). It marked the first septuple bogey at a Major since Tiger Woods carded a 10 on the par-3 12th at Augusta in 2020.

Niemann did have a better day 2 with a 65 (-5), with seven birdies, including one on the sixth. This saw him make the cut, but he sits in 46th spot, tied with the likes of Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth. After the second round, Niemann shared his thoughts on the moment.

The pro admitted that he was not proud of what went down. In his defense, he said that expectations and pressure can sometimes catch up to a golfer and frustrate them. He did have a little back-and-forth with the officials, too, but had to ultimately accept the penalty.

Many fans also questioned this decision by the USGA. Some even said that the officials were biased because the Chilean professional plays on LIV Golf and not the PGA Tour. But the USGA had a good reason to penalize him based on the Code of Conduct guidelines.

USGA’s Rule 1.2b on serious misconduct is as follows:

Code of Conduct

• The Committee may set its own standards of player conduct in a Code of Conduct adopted as a Local Rule.
• The Code may include penalties for breach of its standards, such as a one-stroke penalty or the general penalty.
• The Committee may also disqualify a player for serious misconduct in failing to meet the Code’s standards.

Later, videos emerged of Jon Rahm kicking his golf club during the U.S. Open. He first appeared to scoop the club with his left leg before nudging it forward with the same foot. He then took two strides and gave the club a final kick with his right foot. The Spaniard, however, has not yet received a stroke penalty or a conduct warning.

Niemann is the first player to be penalized under Rule 1.2b for serious misconduct since it was introduced in 2019 and implemented this year. However, it could very well have been someone else who became the first to receive this penalty for showing frustration amid a challenging round. At this year’s Masters, Sergio Garcia received a code of conduct warning, but no stroke penalty for slamming his driver into the tee box and breaking it against a cooler.