SOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK | It was Thursday evening, sundown creeping across Shinnecock Hills at the end of a long, wearying day, and Joaquin Niemann was in a mood.
Niemann, a LIV Golf competitor who’s one of the more underappreciated talents of this generation, had just watched two tee shots ride the crosswind out of bounds on the par-4 sixth hole (his 15th) and his third try had come to rest in a tangle of mess off the right side of the serpentine fairway.
At the same time the USGA was deciding to suspend play due to darkness, Niemann asked a rules official if he was allowed relief from ant hills near his ball, concerned they were fire ants.
The rules official declined to give Niemann relief and, after reportedly kicking at a flag a volunteer had placed near his ball then gouging a sand wedge shot back into the fairway, the 27-year-old Chilean decided to put some room between himself and his wedge, throwing the club approximately 50 yards but, to his credit, only after making sure no one was in the path of his temper toss.
Following the suspension of play, Niemann finished the hole shortly after dawn on Friday and believed he made a quintuple-bogey 9. After playing the last three holes of his first round, he was prepared to sign for what he thought was a 76 only to be told he was being penalized two strokes for violating the tournament’s code of conduct with his club throw.
With the penalty, Niemann had an 11 on his first-round scorecard and an opening 78.
“I didn’t break double digits there,” he said.
This being the U.S. Open, there was naturally more to the story, the second part being a second-round 65 from Niemann that allowed him to make the cut and explain himself.
To his credit, Niemann took a few minutes to talk with the media about what happened when it would have been easy to slip quietly away for the afternoon.
“I hit it two times out of bounds on the right, two bad swings. Then, yeah, got pretty frustrated. I’m not someone that like to be in that behavior. I’m the first one to judge myself when I don’t behave on the golf course,” Niemann said.
“Yeah, that was a misbehave from my part. I felt like a little bit extra penalized with two-shot penalty, but I think it is what it is. I think I’m going to learn from it. It definitely kind of helped me a little bit to have a better round today.”
To his credit, Niemann took a few minutes to talk with the media about what happened when it would have been easy to slip quietly away for the afternoon.
The ruling brought into focus the implementation this year of a code of conduct at the major championships. Each of the three played thus far has had its own set of standards but the idea is to hold players accountable for their behavior.
As part of a rules revision in 2019, Rule 1.2b granted rules committees the authority to impose penalties for conduct they consider unbecoming. Niemann became the first player to be penalized under the rule.
At the Masters in April, Sergio García was given a code-of-conduct warning after slamming his driver into a cooler on the second tee, breaking the club.
At the U.S. Open a year ago, Wyndham Clark, who leads this championship, damaged a metal locker in the Oakmont Country Club locker room after missing the cut but was not penalized because the code of conduct emphasis had not been enacted.
Rory McIlroy also threw a club in the U.S. Open at Oakmont last year without a penalty.
Niemann admitted Friday he was not aware of the code-of-conduct rule and he did not attempt to justify his behavior.
“I saw a lot of ants there, and I was just asking the referee if they were fire ants, and like, he say, no. To be honest, I was pretty – I wasn’t angry asking him. I was pretty normal, pretty chill, because I knew I needed to keep going and try to shoot the less possible,” Niemann said.
“After that shot, I hit it, I lay up, and the whole frustration went inside me. I think they blew the horn already. I’m not sure if they did or not, but after I hit that shot, I was – like all the frustration that came inside me and had my club in my hand, and I couldn’t resist to throw it away.
“I mean, I was looking around. There was no people, obviously. No one there. I’m not proud of it, but yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, all the expectation of trying to play well and things doesn’t go your way, you get frustrated, and that was me there.”
In the 30 minutes between the end of his first round and the start of his second round Friday, Niemann learned his fate. He offered a rebuttal argument but it didn’t get far.
“I mean, it’s their decision, and I feel like, yeah, I wouldn’t be happy seeing players throwing clubs and behaving that way so yeah, I mean, I agree,” Niemann said.
With little turnaround time, Niemann went out and birdied the first two holes and five of the first six, equaling the second-lowest score in the first two days.
He even flashed a sense of humor afterward.
“I played good today too, though,” Niemann said. “Thank you. Thanks for asking.”