Robert MacIntyre has given a Code of Conduct warning in the final round of The Open for slamming a club into the ground.
The incident happened after the Scot’s tee shot on the 16th hole on Sunday at Royal Birkdale, and follows a similar warning given to Jon Rahm earlier in the week.
MacIntyre began the day with an outside chance of hauling himself into contention for his maiden Major title.
However, rather than move up the leaderboard to challenge the likes of overnight leader Sam Burns and Cameron Young, his fortunes took a nosedive.
He began brightly enough, with a birdie at the third, but two bogeys by the turn suggested it wouldn’t be his day.
When he sent his tee shot at the par-4 16th into the native area right of the fairway, it was the final straw, with MacIntyre slamming his club into the ground before completing a bogey.
During the second round, Rahm received a Code of Conduct warning for throwing his club, so MacIntyre’s transgression was unlikely to go unpunished by the new policy, which was introduced in May, and so it proved.
Afterwards, he was asked about his moment of frustration, which he suggested was somewhat inevitable, given his personality.
He said: “Yeah, yeah, but I expect to get a few of them in my career. Yeah, I run hot. So be it.”
He added: “Yeah, I’m going to do it for the rest of my career.
“I try and toe the line, but when you feel like – when you feel you’re playing a golf course that you can hit it pretty much anywhere and there’s no real punishment and then you do hit one slightly off line and you get the biggest punishment you can possibly get, it’s just a sore one.
“Again, I’m going to react aggressively at times. Part of my DNA.”
Asked it it was tricky not knowing what could trigger a warning, he added: “To be honest, I couldn’t care less. If I got a two-shot penalty, it’s my fault. A warning, it’s my fault. I don’t really worry about it.”
On his overall performance, which finished with a one-over 71, he said: “Yeah. I felt like I didn’t have enough chances out there this week.
“Yeah, it’s not far away. Feels miles away right now, but I feel like it was just going to take one good day like Cam has done today and you’re writing about it. But it just wasn’t my week.”
It’s not the first time MacIntyre has had his knuckles rapped at a Major this year.
At The Masters, he was ‘reprimanded’ and reminded about the code of conduct by Augusta National after he was twice seen slamming his club into the fairways as well as being caught swearing and gesturing with his middle finger up.
