A 2-stroke penalty for “serious misconduct” turned Joaquin Niemann’s opening-round 6th hole into the most infamous story of the 2026 U.S. Open. It turned his quintuple-bogey 9 into an 11, which resulted in an eight-over 78 in Round 1. While that disaster probably cost him the tournament, he has now made peace with it.

“To be honest, yes. I was not trying to offend anyone. I think it was something more kind of like against me. I was frustrated. I had my expectations, which are always super high. I was playing good golf. I knew it was going to be a tough week, a long week, a challenging week,” Joaquin Niemann said after his final round.

“After seeing that and knowing that the best score I could do was an 8, it kind of frustrated me a lot. I’m not happy doing that. I’m not proud about throwing a golf club. I get I deserve it in a way; I don’t know. But there’s nothing I can do. I feel like I learned from it.

“I never try to offend anybody, not even the volunteers that were there. I know they do their job and they put the flag and they do the best they can. They don’t pay them to be there; they do that because they like it. I was frustrated; I kicked the flag. I didn’t get pissed because I got a fire ant there.”

This incident made the Chilean professional the first golfer to be penalized under the new major championship code of conduct. Rule 1.2b allows event officials to give a warning in case of misconduct or skip the warning and give a penalty or disqualify a golfer for severe behavior. While the rule was established in 2019, majors began consciously enforcing it in 2026.

Joaquin Niemann and his team tried to question the decision for some time on the practice range. However, the USGA defended its stance by citing the severity of the misconduct. After realizing the situation and getting frustrated on the 6th hole, the LIV golfer threw his sand wedge 50 yards down the fairway. Besides that, he also kicked the white flag volunteer Tristan Chang had placed and scoped the sand around.

While it was unintentional, it still didn’t come out well. And as time passed by, he himself realized the blunder he had made, as it reflected in his comments, too. Initially, after his second round, he said that he felt he was over-penalized.

“I knew I had misbehaved but I feel like everybody had some, and it’s never going to be anything major like a two-shot penalty, you know?” he said.

However, that stance has now changed to “I deserve it in a way.”

But while he accepts the decision, his coach, Peter Cowen, calls it “arbitrary.” Many even called out this bias when the officials didn’t penalize Jon Rahm for his behavior.

Rahm kicked his driver after a poor shot on the 16th during the third round. In contrast to Joaquin Niemann’s case, Rahm’s behavior was captured in a video, which went viral on social media. But despite that, he walked away without any penalty.

But the decision made by the USGA officials was not simply based on a whim.

Joaquin Niemann reveals why his penalty decision was made the next day

The incident that cost the Chilean professional the two-stroke penalty occurred on day 1. However, the penalty was enforced after he completed his Round 1 on the next day because of inclement weather. When asked about the delay, Niemann said that the officials had to discuss the appropriate action.

“What they told me was they actually saw it, and then they probably went back in the afternoon or in the morning and talked with the committee and the different rules officials, or I don’t know,” he said.

Joaquin Niemann is the first professional to get such a penalty. Therefore, it makes sense for the USGA to take time before making a decision. When the officials unanimously decided to go ahead with the penalty, a referee conveyed it to the 27-year-old after he signed his first-round scorecard.

While he may still feel he was singled out, the LIV Golf star has largely shifted his focus from debating the penalty to appreciating the resilience that helped him recover from the setback.