Garcia’s right out of bounds

LEGEND has it that a visitor, who took a bad-tempered hack at a fairway at Swinley Forest Golf Club, was served the divot on a plate at lunch, told to leave and to never return.

That is how golf operates. Although not for Sergio Garcia, it seems, who took a divot out of a GREEN during last week’s tournament in Saudi Arabia, as well as scuffing up a few putting surfaces by deliberately dragging his spikes.

Sure, he was disqualified, but the only thing since then has been a terse apology and a message from the European Tour’s chief executive Keith Pelley to confirm no further action would be taken against the Spaniard.

For Garcia (above) not to be fined or suspended suggests the European Tour does not want to antagonise one of its marquee players.

In a spirit that prides itself on the honest, noble behaviour of its participants, he has got off lightly.

IN his three years in charge, it seems Gianni Infantino’s two major contributions to the game have been to introduce plans to expand the World Cup from 32 teams to a preposterous 48 and to be frequently photographed with a lot of famous ex-footballers.

Yet when FIFA’S presidential elections come around in June, Infantino will stand unopposed.

Sepp Blatter? Infantino? It does not matter. FIFA should not be a fiefdom.

THIRTY per cent of the players who started the opening round of matches were born outside the countries they were representing. Maybe it is about time the Six Nations got a new title.