U.S. Open competitor Joaquin Niemann’s disastrous opening-round performance on Shinnecock’s 6th hole was the stuff of nightmares. Little did we know it was about to get even worse.
Following a single-hole collapse that spanned from Thursday night to early Friday morning, Niemann made matters worse with a spate of “serious misconduct.” At least that’s how U.S. Open tournament officials described it on Friday after hitting Niemann with a two-stroke penalty for a club-throwing incident.
Here’s what we know.
Niemann’s penalty must be viewed in context. And that context may trouble the promising pro for years to come.
In the final hour before play was suspended due to darkness Thursday night, Niemann was starting to get into a groove. He countered two early bogeys with two birdies on his second nine, including at the par-5 5th.
As the sun was setting, Niemann’s group arrived at Shinnecock’s par-4 6th hole, and everything started going wrong for the eight-time LIV winner. He hit his first two tee shots O.B. and sent his fifth shot into a native area.
When the horn blew ending play for the night, Niemann was sitting 6 in the middle of the fairway. His ongoing collapse would have to wait for morning.
After what may have been a fitful night of sleep, Niemann returned to the 6th hole on Friday at 6:35 a.m. ET. He failed to reach the green with his seventh shot and eventually finished out for a tournament-changing quintuple-bogey 9.
But as of Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, that 9 had turned into an 11, which raised his total score from 76 to 78.
At that time, U.S. Open officials announced via press release that Niemann had been charged with a two-shot penalty for throwing a club at some point during his 6th-hole disaster. The incident, the USGA said, was deemed as “serious misconduct.”
“Joaquin Niemann was assessed two penalty strokes for throwing a club on the 6th hole during Round 1,” the U.S. Open’s statement read. “This act was determined to be serious misconduct under Rule 1.2b.”
Rule 1.2b, which was part of a host of rule changes enacted in 2019, states that a tournament “may set its own standards of player conduct in a Code of Conduct adopted as a Local Rule,” and that “the Code may include penalties for breach of its standards, such as a one-stroke penalty or the general penalty.”
Furthermore, the rule states that tournaments may disqualify competitors for “serious misconduct in failing to meet the Code’s standards.”
That’s important to note because while the announcement about Niemann’s penalty used the phrase “serious misconduct,” Niemann was assessed the general penalty (two shots), instead of being disqualified.
When the anouncement was made, it was unclear if Niemann’s club-throwing incident occurred Thursday night while he was playing the 6th hole, or on Friday morning when he returned to finish the hole. But Gabby Herzig of the New York Times uncovered more details later Friday morning from a U.S. Open volunteer at Shinneock Hills.
In a post on X, Herzig reported that the club throw happened Thursday night following his two O.B. shots. When he was denied free relief from fire ants after his third tee shot, Niemann reportedly kicked a white flag marking his ball and then “proceeded to chuck his iron from the fescue area approximately 50 yards to the very edge of the course on the right.”
Ultimately, Niemann’s 11 on the 6th sent his score from even to eight over par, extinguishing any hope of winning his first major title at the 2026 U.S. Open in the process.
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