SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – For most of the 37 minutes between his first and second rounds on Friday morning at the U.S. Open, Joaquin Niemann was in tears.
The 27-year-old Niemann had just been informed by the USGA that he was penalized two strokes for “serious misconduct” after hitting two tee balls out of bounds and a third into the native area on Shinnecock Hills’ sixth hole, his last hole before play was suspended for darkness on Thursday evening. His quintuple-bogey-9 was turned into an 11, pushing Niemann’s opening round to 8-over 78.
According to an earlier report by The Athletic, which quoted a volunteer named Tristan Chang who witnessed the incident, Niemann was attempting to get relief from what he believed to be a mound of fire ants but was denied by a rules official. Per the eyewitness account, Niemann hit his next shot (his sixth overall), then proceeded to kick a spotter’s flag that was stuck in the sand and also chuck his club “approximately 50 yards to the very edge of the course” before a police officer retrieved the club and handed it back to Niemann. Niemann confirmed later that he “couldn’t resist” throwing his sand wedge in frustration, but that was it; he insisted that he “wasn’t angry” in speaking with the official and there was nobody standing near where the club was tossed.
“I’m not proud of it,” Niemann added Friday afternoon, “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.”
With help from his team, Niemann spent nearly a half-hour between rounds trying to regain his composure. He hit only a few shots on the range, struck a couple putts, then proceeded to birdie five of his first six holes.
Niemann’s second-round 65, which bested his third-round 66 from last month’s PGA Championship, secured the LIV player a Saturday tee time at 3 over for the championship.
Before meeting with the media on Friday afternoon, Niemann and several team members, including veteran instructor Pete Cowen, met with Craig Winter, the USGA’s senior director of rules, behind the practice range, where they spent nearly 10 minutes pleading their case, not so much to deny wrongdoing but rather the application of what is a new rule from previous years.
“I knew I had a misbehavior, but I feel like everybody had some, and it’s never going to anything major like two-shot penalty, you know?” Niemann said. “So, yeah, I mean, he start talking to me. They consider with the whole committee that it was a right decision to give me a two-shot penalty, which I kind of, like, a little bit – obviously I was trying to argue back and try to don’t get those two-shot penalty.
“But, yeah, 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.”
The USGA defines serious misconduct as the following: “If a player’s (or their caddie’s) behavior is so far removed from what is expected in the spirit of the game of golf, in accordance with Rule 1.2b, the chief referee, in consultation with the championship director, may apply a penalty of two strokes or disqualification, taking account of the frequency, impact, intent and severity of the misconduct.”
In speaking with a couple members of the media, including Golf Channel, after the meeting with Winter, Cowen disagreed with the decision to penalize Niemann.
“It’s arbitrary,” Cowen said, “because they picked him out of a load of people who threw clubs yesterday and give 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 that he saw three other players throw clubs on Thursday and confirmed that there was no video of Niemann’s incident.
“It’s one man’s word against Joaquin,” Cowen said, adding that there was no appeal process available to Niemann. According to another member of Niemann’s team, the USGA’s explanation to Niemann included, “Not all throws are equal.”
While Cowen was answering questions, two other members of Niemann’s team walked up to dispute The Athletic’s reporting, though when asked several times what specifically was inaccurate, they would not say. Eventually, they walked away.
Minutes later, Niemann was answering questions inside the interview room.
“I’m not someone that like to be in that behavior,” Niemann said. “I’m the first one to judge myself when I don’t behave on the golf course. 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.”
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