02 February 2019: Sergio Garcia will not sleep very well tonight. The Spaniard has been living in discomfort this week, his relationship with the paspalum grass on the rocks soon after he arrived at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club for the inaugural Saudi International. After complaining on Friday about the state of the bunkers around the course, Garcia seems to have let the frustration get the better of him on Saturday. It is reported widely that Garcia’s behaviour on the greens was disrespectful to the game and his fellow professionals.
The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster is reporting that Sergio Garcia damaged as many as five greens, with the golfers in the groups that followed complaining about damaged greens as they followed the Spaniard through those holes.
Apparently, Sergio Garcia damaged FIVE greens and the players in next four groups all complained to officials @SaudiIntlGolf @RoyalGreens_KSA @ScotsmanSport @edinburghsport
— Martin Dempster (@DempsterMartin) February 2, 2019
This is not the first time that Garcia is having a run in with the rules officials. His actions in Abu Dhabi were reviewed in 2014 before he was cleared of any wrongdoing. On that occasion, Garcia marked his ball on the ninth hole of his round before reaching forward to tap down the green with his putter. The situation was reviewed on video and the officials accepted the Spaniard’s version. Garcia said, he was flattening a pitch mark.
The European Tour issued a brief release and further details are awaited as news continues to filter through about the incident.
In another incident at the Dell Technologies Championship in 2017, the reigning Masters Champion at the time broke his putter in anger.
RIP Sergio’s putter. pic.twitter.com/t74IIdoO68
— Skratch (@Skratch) September 3, 2017
He went on to putt with a 3-wood, the driver and iron through the rest of the third round.
“I respect the decision of my disqualification,” said Garcia. “In frustration, I damaged a couple of greens, for which I apologise for, and I have informed my fellow players it will never happen again.”
Garcia was disqualified at the end of the third round. He was handed the punishment for breach of Rule 1.2a which deals with instances of ‘serious misconduct’ on the part of golfers, leading to a disqualification.
The Spaniard is supposedly the first ever golfer on the European Tour to suffer a disqualification since the circuit turned global.
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