Sergio Garcia formally apologized on Tuesday, two days after his outburst during the final round of the Masters drew a code-of-conduct warning.
After an errant drive on the par-5 second hole, Garcia twice slammed his driver into the tee box, then broke the club after smashing it against a cooler. Under the Rules of Golf, Garcia played the rest of the round without the club because it had been damaged out of abuse.
The 2017 Masters champion was approached two holes later by Geoff Yang, the new chairman of the competitions committee, and issued a code-of-conduct warning, a first at the Masters.
“I want to apologize for my actions on Sunday at the Masters tournament,” Garcia posted on his social channels on Tuesday. “I respect and value everything that The Masters and Augusta National Golf Club is to Golf. I regret the way I acted and it has no place in our game. It doesn’t reflect the respect and appreciation I have for The Masters, the patrons, tournament officials and golf fans around the world.”
After the round, however, Garcia declined to discuss the specifics of the incident and stopped short of apologizing.
“Obviously not super proud of it,” he told reporters, “but sometimes it happens.”
Garcia shot a final-round 75 and finished 52nd among the 54 players who made the cut. Since his breakthrough major victory at Augusta, the Spaniard has six missed cuts and no finish better than 23rd there.
Asked to explain the lack of success since ’17, Garcia said, “Bad golf.”
He will play this week at the LIV event in Mexico.