Johnson Wagner calls for a PGA Tour change after Scottie Scheffler lost his cool at the Tour Championship

Johnson Wagner has backed the idea of the PGA Tour taking inspiration from the major championships and introducing a code of conduct policy after Scottie Scheffler could not hide his frustration at one stage during the third round of the Tour Championship.

Scheffler goes into Sunday at East Lake with a real opportunity to win the FedEx Cup for a second time. The world number one is three shots back of Viktor Hovland with 18 holes to play.

It could have easily been even better for Scheffler, however, with the 30-year-old enduring a frustrating Saturday on the greens.

Johnson Wagner calls for the PGA Tour to introduce a new policy after seeing Scottie Scheffler’s frustration at the Tour Championship

Scottie Scheffler was the second best player from tee to green during the third round, but lost more than 1.3 shots to the field with the putter in his hands.

That led to an outburst on the 13th green after Scheffler missed his birdie putt from just inside 16 feet.

He seemed baffled by how the putt broke, and used some colourful language to express his frustration.

While Johnson Wagner does not think that Scheffler crossed the line, he did suggest on CBS Sports that the incident highlighted the need for the PGA Tour to potentially take a stronger stance on bad behaviour.

“I do like what the major championships have done this year with the code of conduct policy. I wonder if the PGA Tour may follow suit,” he said, when speaking about Scheffler getting annoyed.

“I’m not saying that Scottie did anything that would be egregious or get a warning or anything, but I think it makes a difference, and there’s so many young kids watching. Listen, I shouldn’t be saying that. I broke plenty of clubs in competition out here, but there was nobody watching me when I did it.”

Wagner reacts to Scottie Scheffler’s performance on Saturday at East Lake

Scheffler is such a fascinating character to follow on the golf course.

If you avoided keeping up with the score, you could easily convince yourself that Scheffler is languishing down towards the bottom of the leaderboard most weeks.

Displays of enthusiasm are rare, while he is not afraid to lose his temper. And yet, Scheffler will potentially register his 13th top five finish of the season on Sunday.

Certainly, Wagner suggested that he was extremely impressed by how Scheffler performed during the third round at East Lake.

“He was amazing. He hit so many good wedge shots today. This drive here on the eighth, he said as he was walking up, ‘I thought it was in the right bunker’, felt like he got pretty lucky there. Just couldn’t get anything going on the greens, but man, it was impressive watching him,” he said.

“If I were him, I would have been frustrated too, because where he put himself, he drove the ball beautifully. And from where he put himself on that golf course, I’m sure he felt he shot as high as he could have.”

Scheffler made minimal gains on the greens during both of his first two rounds in Atlanta. Therefore, no one should be surprised if he manages to make a big statement on Sunday as he looks to catch Hovland.