For years, Golf handled on-course meltdowns the way Augusta handles everything: quietly and privately. Well, that changed in April. Now the PGA Championship has a locker room notice that tells players exactly what a second offense will cost them on the scorecard.

“The player code of conduct is something that has been a collaborative effort among all the majors and the major Tours,” Haigh told the media. “So that certainly from our standpoint, which is all I can speak from the championship way, we have adopted the code of conduct. With the aim being to — similar to pace of play, in that the policy is written. 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.

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 timing is not coincidental. The discussion started in April when the Masters became the first major to adopt this framework. In the final round, Sergio Garcia took a couple of violent swings at the tee box on the second tee and damaged it. He then walked over to a nearby cooler and slammed his driver into it hard enough to snap the clubhead off the shaft. He finished the last 16 holes without a driver. Two holes later, committee chairman Geoff Yang stopped Garcia on the fourth tee and handed out the first official conduct warning in Masters history. Garcia, when asked what Yang said to him, replied, “I’m not going to tell you.”

This was not Garcia’s first such incident. At the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, he broke his driver in virtually identical fashion on the second hole during the final round—same hole number, same pattern, and same outcome—and played the last 16 holes without a driver. The difference at Augusta was that a formal policy was now in place to respond.

Garcia was not alone at the Masters. MacIntyre was also warned after giving the bird at the 15th green after a quadruple bogey, and spoken to after returning to the clubhouse. Both incidents were shown live and clipped onto social media within minutes, which is exactly what the governing bodies say is driving the urgency.

In the days after Augusta, Max Homa put the concern plainly. “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 breaking clubs makes us look very, very spoiled,” Homa said at the RBC Heritage. “We want to inspire the next generation to be better than us, so we need to be held to a higher standard.” Surprisingly, days later, Homa threw his own club into a tree at Harbour Town, acknowledged the irony on Instagram, and wrote that he was “thankful so many people have held me accountable.”

Those two incidents together make the same point that pushed the majors to act: even players who understand why conduct matters still struggle under pressure, which is exactly why a formal, enforceable policy now exists. The R&A said the same framework will be applied for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in July, with chief executive Mark Darbon hinting a two-shot penalty could be applied. At Aronimink, losing your cool now could cost you more than a bad hole.

The code of conduct seems to be settled at the PGA Championship. However, the May debate is far from settled.

PGA Championship’s May slot: Here’s why it’s not moving

Clark, the new PGA of America CEO, says he has spoken with players, partners, and sponsors about the scheduling question. His bottom line: The calls to go back to August are more about nostalgia than substance. Notably, the PGA Championship is not another date on the calendar.

That said, the August argument is not without logic. Some players truly feel it lost its distinct personality when it moved to May, after building decades of history in the summer. Clark said he heard that all the time, but he didn’t use that as an excuse to act.

The conditions on the course are a practical case for staying in May, Haigh said. Aronimink this week is the best evidence. The club closed the course last November and let it fully recover through the winter, and the playing surfaces are outstanding. Soft fairways, healthy grass, and firm greens seldom come together this cleanly in August.

The heat factor is another thing that plays into it more than the scheduling debate often gives it credit for. Brutal conditions for fans in August at Southern Hills in Tulsa or Bellerive in St. Louis. This gives the tournament a more approachable atmosphere without sacrificing the quality of the test on the course.