One of the viral moments from the Masters had nothing to do with play, as during Sunday’s round LIV Golf’s Sergio Garcia damaged a tee box and broke his club following a poor drive. The incident let to Garcia being reprimanded by an Augusta National official under a new code of conduct policy, which will also be in play at next month’s PGA Championship. Asked Wednesday about that policy at the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage, Max Homa spoke about what he thinks violates that policy, while indirectly speaking about Garcia’s actions.
“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. “I try my absolute best not to do it, and when it does happen, as far as slamming a tee box, I’m very upset with myself because we’re very lucky to play this game where we do, and I think it is a bad look.”
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Homa, who has been open with his struggles with the game, acknowledged he has his own bad habits, specifically his language. “I very much try to do it not when a kid can hear,” Homa said. “So I do think there’s some, hey, don’t say it in front of the wrong person, like be a bit aware of your surroundings.” He also asserted how this frustrating sport can lead to frustrating actions.
Still, while Homa said he doesn’t know where to draw the line, destroying the course is a non-starter.
“I definitely think beating up a golf course would be probably — because the rest of us have to play it. But that’s a tough thing to handle or to decide upon because it is so subjective,” Homa said. “If I do something where no one is watching on TV, that gets graded a lot lower than when it’s in front of everybody. I don’t know how you would land that plane.
“It’s never a bad thing to have that conversation being had at Augusta. That’s good. Between that and pace-of-play stuff, there’s things we can address, and we can wait until we figure it out until we implement it, but at least the conversation is going that way. We want to inspire the next generation to be better than us, so we need to be held to a higher standard.”
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Two days after the incident Garcia issued a statement regarding his outburst. “”I want to apologize for my actions on Sunday at the Masters tournament,” Garcia wrote. “I respect and value everything that the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club is to golf. I regret the way I acted and it has no place in our game. It doesn’t reflect the respect and appreciation I have for The Masters, the patrons, tournament officials and golf fans around the world.”
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