Major champion has surprise reaction after pro dropkicks putter

As golf tantrums at the highest level go, this was right up there from Patton Kizzire. 

The three-time PGA Tour winner lost his cool in extraordinary fashion at the Valspar Championship on Thursday, resembling an NFL punter as he sent his putter into the stratosphere.

Kizzire, the world No.128, was only just getting started at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort when he missed a five-footer for par.

The red mist descended on the par-3 15th (he started on the 10th) and Kizzire, who had missed a three-footer for birdie already in his round, kicked his putter on the fly, making remarkably clean contact.

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The club most have flown 40 feet right across the green and ended up a crumpled mess. The bent shaft meant Kizzire could no longer continue with the club.

Commentator Gary Koch said the Golf Channel broadcast: “Auditioning maybe for his NFL career?”

Analyst Brad Faxon added: “That was about a 20-yard – that would have been a field goal. The extra point.”

After that implosion, Kizzire managed just three more holes before withdrawing on the par-5 18th as he cited a back injury.

Yet despite completing just eight holes of the Valspar, Kizzire’s infamous dropkick will be the viral moment of the tournament and will be replayed for a long time yet.

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The incident prompted a whole host of reactions on social media, some denouncing the act and others simply impressed by Kizzire’s technique.

A particularly interesting reaction, however, came from Mark Calcavecchia, the 1989 Open Champion who is well versed in on-course tantrums.

‘Calc’ says he has avoided punishment for this kind of behaviour before.

“He’ll get fined,” he wrote on X. “Then he’ll appeal claiming faulty putter and bad green. Or somebody was heckling him. I know this stuff. 19 fines myself and got outta of several.”

Such a reprieve for the hot-headed Kizzire would surely seem unlikely.

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.