Golf is known for its civility, but often the world’s most famous players prove that stereotype wrong.
The latest example is Dustin Johnson, who was reportedly suspended for six months following a third failed drug test. Johnson allegedly has twice tested positive for coke and once for weed, and he’s also well-known for his philandering ways.
Johnson, who is now engaged to Paulina Gretzky, supposedly broke up the marriage of another player by having an affair with his wife.
But Johnson is far from alone, as golf has seen its fair share of bad boys through the years.
Tiger Woods
The world’s most famous golfer also owns the sport’s most famous scandal.
On Thanksgiving night in 2009, Woods’ wife Elin Nordegren chased him out of the house with a golf club after she discovered he was cheating on her. It turned out to be far worse, as eventually dozens of women came out saying they had slept with Woods.
John Daly
There’s no shame in Daly’s game.
He loves smoking, boozing and gambling, when he’s not blowing up on the golf course.
Fuzzy Zoeller
His reputation was forever tarnished by this interview during the 1997 Masters, while discussing what Woods would put on the menu for his champion’s dinner.
Sergio Garcia
Fifteen years later and people were still making “fried chicken” comments about Woods.
Garcia fumed after claiming he was distracted mid-swing by Woods pulling a club from his bag, while the two were playing together.
There was a brief back-and-forth, and then Garcia said this at the awards dinner for European Tour players:
“We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken.”
Rory Sabbatini
He’s feuded with other tour players (Sean O’Hair and Vijay Singh), his ex-wife accused him of cheating on her multiple times, and in his spare time he berates teenage volunteers at tournaments.
From the AP at the Zurich Classic in 2011:
Two people with direct knowledge of the Riviera incident said the teenager placed an empty plastic bottle on foot-high grass right off the fifth green where he thought Sabbatini hit his ball. Sabbatini is said to have berated the youth for affecting his ball, although it turned out the ball was not his. The grass was so dense that three other balls were found, none belonging to Sabbatini.
Nick Faldo
He wasn’t always the smooth-talking and gregarious analyst for CBS.
Faldo had a rough reputation in his prime: Players labeled him standoffish on the course and he reportedly fired his coach, David Leadbetter, with a brief letter sent while Leadbetter was with his father in England after the death of his mother.
Off the course, he had two marriages end when he allegedly cheated and a relationship infamously conclude with his girlfriend attacking his Porsche with golf clubs, causing over $16,000 worth of damage.
Bubba Watson
The two-time Masters champ caught the ire of golf fans for the way he berated his caddie for a club selection during last year’s Traveler Championship.
Anthony Kim
The former top-10 player has taken a significant break from the game, but before he did, Kim became known for his partying ways.
In 2010, he was told to tone it down after dropping a ridiculous amount of f-bombs while gambling at The Bellagio. He followed that up by dropping $25K on champagne.
It all would have been well and good if he didn’t withdraw from the tournament later in the week.
A year prior, Australian Robert Allenby had accused Kim of being the “loosest cannon” on tour and the “current John Daly.”
Colin Montgomerie
The Scot has battled American crowds throughout his mostly successful career, and cursed one out during the 1997 US Open at Congressional.
“The abuse from the American fans was my fault,” Montgomerie, who was taunted with “Mrs. Doubtfire” chants by fans, told BBC Radio. “I regret one particular moment when I was leading the US Open in 1997 at Congressional and I did the unthinkable and answered back.”
“I made a mistake and answered back and I paid for it for about 10 years.”