Paul McGinley suggests Rory McIlroy may have breached code of conduct rules at the PGA Championship

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Rory McIlroy made a solid if not spectacular start to the PGA Championship on Thursday.

McIlroy’s preparation for the PGA Championship at Aronimink definitely didn’t go to plan,

The 37-year-old has been struggling with a blister on his pinky toe – something that he picked up at the Truist Championship last week.

Rory McIlroy had to cut his PGA Championship practice round short after suffering discomfort due to the blister under his toenail.

However, McIlroy didn’t seem to be limping at all on Thursday at Aronimink.

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Despite being fully fit, there weren’t any fireworks from the Northern Irishman on day one of the PGA Championship.

At the time of writing, McIlroy was even-par after 14 holes of his first round, but Paul McGinley suggested that he could be in trouble after what he did on the fourth tee.

Rory McIlroy may have breached code of conduct rules at the PGA Championship

McIlroy’s game looked very rusty on Thursday at Aronimink.

He certainly wasn’t terrible, but he made a couple of extremely sloppy bogeys.

And McIlroy’s day potentially could get even worse, according to McGinley.

On the fourth tee (McIlroy’s 13th hole of the day), he smashed the turf with his driver after flaring his tee shot out to the right into the thick rough.

And McGinley shared his concern about McIlroy’s actions.

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“Oh Rory,“ McGinley exclaimed.

*“*There’s a new code of conduct that has come in for all the major championships now.

“We saw it at The Masters. I don’t know if that’s considered a breach or not.“

McIlroy’s actions on the fourth tee at Aronimink were certainly not pretty, but it would be incredibly harsh if he was penalized strokes.

Players have done much worse in the majors this season already; just look at what Sergio Garcia did at The Masters last month!

New code of conduct rules and what they mean

New rules were brought in at the start of 2026 in an attempt to expurgate some of the poor behavior we witnessed from certain players on the golf course throughout the 2025 season.

The likes of Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Cam Young were all guilty of displaying angry outbursts on the golf course last year.

As confirmed by the USGA, the new code of conduct was brought in to ‘penalize egregious on-course temper tantrums and outbursts’.

It is suggested that the new code of conduct overhaul is ‘part of a broader push to standardize and penalize inappropriate behavior directly on the scorecard’.

The new rules allow each governing body to set their own standards for how players should conduct themselves.

Players who are found guilty of a breach of those standards could be handed a one-stroke penalty or even a two-stroke penalty for more extreme cases.

Whether Rory McIlroy’s actions on the fourth tee during day one of the PGA Championship fall into the category of a breach of the code of conduct remains to be seen.