AUGUSTA, Ga. — This place, you might have heard, is big on rules. No phones. No running. No curling up under the inviting shade of a loblolly and sneaking a quick nap. And, oh yeah, most definitely no pounding tee boxes with your driver with the ferocity of a butcher tenderizing a side of beef.
Alas, that was the scene on Augusta National’s 2nd tee box Sunday morning after the drive of 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia began tracking toward the par-5’s cavernous fairway bunker. This wasn’t Garcia’s first course-rage incident but given the grandness and decorousness of the stage — and the vigor with which he perpetrated said steam-release — the meltdown may live forever as his most infamous.
If you’re a golf fan and you’ve been anywhere near social media today, you’ve seen the clip. As Garcia’s tee ball begins to tail toward the right side of the fairway, he uncoils from his backswing and takes a mighty back-handed lash at the turf, creating a meaty divot in the tee box. That’s quickly followed by a second Garcia swing, though on this swipe he generously spares the sod beneath him. Shane Bacon, an A+ talker calling the action for Masters.com, is speechless. He offers only a grunt.
Garcia wasn’t done. Moments later, the 46-year-old Spaniard wound up again and hammered his Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond into a cooler stand to the right of the tee, leaving the driver head dangling off the shaft like a fish from a rod. Garcia clasped the head with his right hand and finished the job. Time of death: approximately 9:45 a.m. local time…