Sergio Garcia should be sanctioned for his disgusting act

Good etiquette is at the very foundation of golf for players and crowds alike. The Ryder Cup is the most partisan it gets, but even then cheering an opposition player's poor shot is frowned upon.

Compare that with the jeers that ring out at a routine football match when a player blooters a shot over the crossbar.

"Yes, I did it," said Garcia after millions had seen him on television spitting during the third round of the WGC-CA Championship, "but there was nothing to it. I missed a putt and I was not too happy. Don't worry. It did go in the middle. It wasn't going to affect anyone else. If it did, I would have wiped it off."

His reference to going into the middle was to the saliva, of course, and not the ball.

You certainly wouldn't want to be following the 27-year-old Spaniard on a bad day. On Saturday, Australians Aaron Baddeley and Geoff Ogilvy were in the group behind and therefore the first to dip their hands into the hole after Garcia had gone.

Spitting is an ugly but not uncommon habit in golf, but there is a world of difference between doing so on rough ground, or even the fairway, and gobbing into the hole where every player in the field has to go without fail.

All golfers know how frustrating it is to miss a short putt and usually get by with a carefully chosen oath spoken not too loudly.

Sometimes it goes further if you believe the stories that are posted on Mrgolf.com where golfers who breach etiquette are invited to confess their sins and seek absolution. Here's one: "My tee shot at a par 3 sat three feet from the pin. One would think that this was an automatic birdie. I couldn't believe that I took three putts.

"I was so angry that I threw my putter up in the air behind me and it bounced off the green right into my partner's face. His lip bled and my face was the colour of his blood. I felt two inches high. I swore from that moment that I would become a complete golfer. My game has significantly improved, I believe, due to being more relaxed and having some etiquette."

There is no such contrition from Garcia who is expected to be fined a sum he probably won't notice.

If you were to make the punishment fit the crime some other sanction might be more appropriate. Cleaning the public toilets with a toothbrush might be too severe given the shocking condition some of these are in at the end of a hot day, but he could be sent out at the crack of dawn with a cloth to ensure that each and every hole is clean and welcoming for the entire field.

There are powers to take the matter further. The R&A and the USGA in their most recent revision of the rules empowered committees to disqualify and ban players who commit serious breaches etiquette.

The first section in the rules on etiquette deals with the spirit of golf. It reads in part: "All players should conduct themselves in a disciplined manner, demonstrating courtesy and sportsmanship at all times, irrespective of how competitive they may be."

Spitting into the hole would seem to be a serious breach of that, particularly if this was not the first time he had done it.

Garcia finished joint third in Miami on Sunday on six-under-par 282, four behind a stuttering Tiger Woods, and his extreme frustration is understandable. While his play from tee to green is exceptional, putting has always been his big weakness and his performance at Doral was no exception.

The PGA Tour moves on to Texas this week, but Miami was the last big rehearsal for the Masters that begins in nine days' time. Garcia, a talisman at last year's Ryder Cup, was again at the vanguard of the European challenge on Sunday.

The golfing world will applaud if he succeeds at Augusta National, and preferably by keeping his dignity intact.