This year in golf was another controversial one both on and off the greens from players calling out players to the PGA Tour and LIV Golf discussions.
Differences were made, but eventually, some were settled as some are still ongoing. Whether it is through specific rule changes or differences of opinion, each golfer has their perspective in playing the game and trying to win.
Related: Top 10 PGA Tour goflers of 2023
Here are the biggest controversies in golf this year.
10. Matt Fitzpatrick and Collin Morikawa during the Hero World Challenge
For most of the field at the Hero World Challenge, it was their final event of 2023. Twenty of the best golfers on the PGA Tour were on hand for a tournament in the Bahamas with 82-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods as the event host.
All the players that were on hand competing the first week of December have had a history of winning, whether it was during 2023 or prior to this year.
While every athlete has their perspective of competing, the competition vibes shifted on the fourth hole of the third round as Matt Fitzpatrick was paired with Collin Morikawa.
Morikawa or his caddie wrote the results from the practice green down in their green book. However, once the statistics and data are referenced during competition, that player would be a violation of the rules.
However, Fitzpatrick questioned the rules official that night after the round regarding that rule. As a result, Morikawa was assessed a two-stroke penalty, all over a 10-foot putt that missed.
To take it a step further, Fitzpatrick accidentally reported the possible mistake, focusing more on being curious rather than trying to penalize his playing partner. Add in some frustration from Morikiawa and his caddie, and it made for the only part of the tournament to go awry.
Related: World Golf Rankings
9. The proposed rule change of the golf ball rollback
A week after the Hero World Challenge and after months of rumors, the United States Golf Association and the R&A – golf’s governing bodies – announced that a new rule would be implemented for the type of ball being used in competition.
This rule was being implemented to curve the length and swing speeds of top players. The difficult part is adding the rule to local course mandates and the uniqueness of the guidelines in place at each course.
This sparked conversation among the players, especially from the game’s best, both past and present, from Woods to even Jack Nicklaus.
Because of how far golf balls are traveling as a result of the players being bigger and stronger compared to Nicklaus’ time, this has been a prompting issue even dating back to Woods’ prime in the early 2000s.
The difference of opinion comes between the PGA Tour and the four major tournaments. Each of the four majors was on board with the rule change, but the PGA Tour was not in favor because of its events, outside the majors on the schedule.
8. Tiger Woods’ prank at The Genesis Invitational
In his first tournament of the year, thousands of people were on edge to see the 15-time major champion suit up in The Genesis Invitational at Riviera, an event that Tiger Woods also hosts.
Woods, who was teeing it up with his buddy, Justin Thomas during the opening round, was finding success with his driver, hitting the ball well over 300 yards.
As Woods and Thomas were approaching the turn, things took a turn at the ninth. Woods, who turned 48 on Dec. 30, ripped his drive down the fairway for 323 yards. Thomas, 30, however, was unable to reach his ball.
That resulted in Woods pulling a prank by giving Thomas a tampon, slipping it into his hand. However, this was caught on camera, and once that photo reached social media, there was no going back.
Some understood the joke and laughed, while others took offense to it.
Being the older statesman to Thomas, he wants to celebrate when he does something better than his friend, especially off the tee. This was not the first time either.
This situation was taken to another level. However, it was quickly resolved when Woods later apologized.
7. Brooks Koepka helping a competitor?
These next two spots happened during the Masters.
Before Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm were battling it out on Sunday, and before the rain altered play for the remainder of the first major of 2023, Koepka was in the middle of some possible hot water during the opening round.
Koepka, paired with Gary Woodland, found controversy on the 15th hole.
After Koepka’s iron shot, he takes his glove off and extends his fingers like he is symbolling the number five. Coincidentally, as he potentially signaled the number five, Woodland’s caddie was looking at Koepka as if he was asking the eventual runner-up what club he just used, referencing a 5-iron.
His “five” symbol prompted questioning from Masters officials because it was in possible violation of rule of giving advice to another competitor or caddie.
After discussion and questions to all parties in the group, Koepka was not penalized two strokes for violating the rule.
Imagine if the violation was assessed. Koepka’s eventual lead in the third round would not have been as much and would have finished 6-under, instead of 8-under, which would knock him down to T6 and Phil Mickelson would be in solo second while Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Russell Henley would tie for third.
6. Patrick Cantlay’s pace of play
During the final round at Augusta, Koepka and Rahm were playing behind Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay.
No matter if it is a major tournament or another game in a sport, players and athletes alike want to find their rhythm. Some like to slow down and take their time while others want ride the hot hand and increase the tempo.
As the final 18 regulation holes were underway and Rahm and Koepka were battling it out, they were faced with an indirect obstacle: the pace of play and getting the brunt of the slow action was Patrick Cantlay because of the time that he possibly took both in between shots and in preparation to swing.
It was slow to the point where Koepka knew how many times Rahm had to take a break.
Pace of play has always been an issue since the game was invented in the 1860s.
The challenges that Sunday at the Masters brought were unlike any other. Because of the rain that halted play, Sunday was paired with players starting not only on the front nine but also on the back nine. Add in the wind and course design and it makes it tougher for golfers to decide which club and how they are going to hit their shot, leading to more time needed.
5. Patrick Cantlay and the hat hox
Five months after the Masters and a few weeks after the Tour Championship, one of the biggest remaining events on the schedule was the Ryder Cup between Team USA and Team Europe in Rome. The United States, which had not won the Ryder Cup away from home soil, was up against a difficult task.
On the second to last day of the Ryder Cup, fans were seen waving hats at Cantlay, who was not wearing hat. Cantlay, who partnered with Wyndham Clark, dropped a lengthy putt on the 18th hole, playing against Rory McIlroy and Fitzpatrick.
There were many undefined reasons as to why Cantlay was not wearing a hat, from advertising purposes, change of luck for the Americans, the tan line for his upcoming wedding, etc.
In response, to making the putt he waved his hat to the Team Europe-dominated crowd.
4. Rory McIlroy’s response to Cantlay and hat topic
Part two of Cantlay’s hat hoax comes from the response from McIlroy.
While Cantlay was waving his hat, so was his caddie, Joe Lacava. However, because of how close Lacava was waving his hat, McIlroy the two started to have words.
Once they separated and Team Europe was back to focusing primarily on putting, both McIlroy and Fitzpatrick missed their putts, giving Cantlay and Clark the win and the point.
However, during the handshakes after the match, there were more words and had to be separated again.
Later that evening, McIlroy was shouting in the parking lot with the Americans’ Justin Thomas’ caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay. McIlroy was held back and pushed into the car by European teammate Shane Lowry, trying to diffuse the situation and calm McIlroy down.
After McIlroy defeated Sam Burns in Sunday’s singles, he said the hat gestures were disrespectful knowing that he and Fitzpatrick still had to putt.
The situation continued to diffuse after McIlroy calmed down and apologized to Maclay while using what happened on the 18th as momentum going into singles action.
McIlroy and the Europeans would go on to defeat the Americans 16.5-11.5.
3. Patrick Reed’s Tee Party
McIlroy was once again involved in some controversy, however this time, he was less riled up than during the Ryder Cup.
At the Dubai Desert Classic in January, an event on the DP World Tour, Patrick Reed was on the practice green on Tuesday before the tournament began. However, so was McIlroy.
This was one of the first PGA Tour versus LIV Golf controversies that happened. McIlroy had been the face of the PGA Tour during the LIV Golf circuit saga during all though rumors and news within the previous 16 months.
On the other hand, Patrick Reed was one of those who decided to move on from the PGA Tour and go to the LIV Golf circuit. Apparent video evidence would ultimately arise the following day.
Reed walked up to McIlroy, along with his coach, Michael Bannon and caddie, Harry Diamond. Because Reed had been on LIV Golf, he had not been competing in the same field as McIlroy, looking to greet him.
Trying to do that can be an awkward situation because preparation for a tournament involves being focused and honing in on skills for the week. Reed ultimately caught McIlroy at a troubled time. Reed first walked up to Diamond. No problem.
At the same time, McIlroy crouched down by his trackman, without looking up. That was when Reed tried to talk to McIlroy, who remained in a crouching position, not looking up. As a result, Reed walked away and after taking a few steps, he turned around a tossed a tee back at McIlroy.
2. Jon Rahm ‘late’ 2023 move to LIV
The fall portion of a season is a time for the top players to relax and unwind from a long and stressful year.
As a result, players are out of the limelight for a few months before the new season begins.
Jon Rahm’s possible move to LIV Golf started to arise when he did not commit to The American Express, one of the four tournaments he won in 2023 on the West Coast swing in early December.
This also came after he pulled out of Woods and McIlroy’s technology-inspired golf league, the TGL, in November. At that point, the reasons behind Rahm dropping out of the TGL were not because of LIV but because of the location of the TGL events taking place in Florida when he lives in Arizona.
Most of the time, the defending champion is a commitment to that event, whether it has Max Homa to the Fortinet Championship or Tom Kim at the Shriners Children’s Open.
Rahm was also not in the Bahamas for the star-studded Hero World Challenge, a place where he definitely had the opportunity to participate.
Then came his announcement on Fox News that he was joining LIV golf on Dec. 7, four days after the completion of the Hero World Challenge.
During the initial movement of players moving to LIV Golf in 2022, such as Dustin Johnson, Rahm was against it and was for the PGA Tour. However, during the last 18 months, something gave for Rahm to make the move as he now finds out who his three other teammates will be.
1. The PGA-LIV deal without the players
The biggest controversy of 2023 came in June, in the heart of the PGA Tour schedule and a couple of weeks before the U.S. Open when PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan explained the merger with the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf on CNBC on June 6.
This agreement between the two golf leagues ultimately put an end to the fight that was taking place, especially in the courts.
Originally the sides agreed on a Dec. 31 deadline to formulate the tentative deal but has since been pushed back to April 2024.
However, the controversy resided from the players, because the PGA Tour members did not know this was happening.
“I would say that my reaction was surprised as I’m sure a lot of the players were taken back by it, by what happened,” Woods said at the Hero World Challenge. “So quickly, without any input or any information about it, it was just thrown out there. I was very surprised that the process was what it was.”
As a result of Woods being shocked by the news, he was added to the PGA Tour’s policy board. Woods, who is one of six players on the board, was supported by more than 40 players to have a spot on the board.
Woods also continued during the press conference at the Hero World Challenge that these types of announcements “can’t happen again.”
Not having the players participate in this PGA-LIV announcement pushed the PGA Tour back in terms of losing some trust.
That’s why Woods and McIlroy had a player-only meeting in 2022, which eventually led to the designated events this past season for PGA Tour members to be more spoken, in addition to those who are on the policy board or even the Player Advisory Council.