Golf, like baseball, is more about failure than success.
The hitter who prevails 30 percent of the time is an all-star and the golfer who manages to shoot level par in a playoff is a major champion.
And both sports demand that one minimizes mistakes with emphasis not only on the what, but the when.
Martin Kaymer persevered when necessary Sunday and his reward was the PGA Championship and first career major title.
Dustin Johnson failed at the worst possible time.
His misstep was not one of execution, but awareness. Johnson’s talent didn’t fail him, his inability to process the moment did and with that his second chance at his first major victory evaporated.
Whistling Straits, site of 2010 PGA Championship. Photo by Dan Perry
Johnson soled his club in a hazard on the 72nd hole at Whistling Straits, an act that dropped him from a playoff with Kaymer and Bubba Watson into a tie for fifth. Had he holed his putt on the final green, the gaffe would have cost him an outright victory.
Instead, he must take solace in the check that is a $1 million lighter than the winner’s share and see the name Dustin Johnson linked forever with Robert De Vicenzo and Jean Van de Velde.
It was De Vicenzo, who signed his card with a 4 instead of the birdie 3 he actually scored at the 71st hole and handed the 1968 Masters crown to Bob Goalby.
Van de Velde eviscerated a three-stroke lead on the last hole of the 1999 British Open as he hacked his way in an out of the burn at Carnoustie and the Claret Jug fell into the lap of Paul Lawrie.
Johnson’s crime is that he didn’t stop and ask the question.
He didn’t look at the sand at his feet that held his ball and momentarily pause. Also, he didn’t consider his actions afoul of the rulebook for one simple reason.
“It never crossed my mind that it was a sand trap,” Johnson told reporters afterward.
That lack of foresight cost him a spot on the Wanamaker Trophy and scuttled his chance at extra time.
The fault, too, lies squarely on the shoulders of Johnson who never complained the ruling was unfair.
To his credit, he accepted the two-stroke penalty — scratching the 5 he had written and replacing it with a 7 — after viewing the video evidence at the insistence of rules officials who didn’t want Johnson to sign an incorrect scorecard and get disqualified.
Every player was warned ahead of time that the 1,000 or so bunkers were all designated hazards and therefore subject to penalty. But as playing partner and third-round leader Nick Watney pointed out, not reading a rules sheet is par for the course. They get those every week.
So, there was Johnson, leading the tournament by a stroke and surveying his tee shot that landed well right of the gallery ropes and onto a spit of exposed soil no bigger than a beach towel.
One of the longest hitters on tour, Johnson was in familiar territory off the fairway — on what he mistook for a simple patch kicked up by the paying public.
But it wasn’t.
It was one of Pete Dye’s misguided notions of architectural nuance. And that inside joke cost Johnson mightily.
It’s Johnson’s job, though, to lesson the blow of his mistakes. This wasn’t the FBR Open; it was the PGA and he needed to get it right.
Past experience should have proved invaluable, as well.
Johnson’s mauling of the second and third holes in the final round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in June punted any chance at that title as he sullied his third-round, three-stroke lead with an 82.
What is apparent, though, is the spot-on projection of Johnson as one of the game’s rising stars. A little course management and Johnson could be holding two of the game’s most cherished trophies.
And taking that next step — Johnson achieving that ultimate success in a major — could largely be built on such monumental failures.
Johnson turned 26 in June and he has three victories to his credit in his third full year on the PGA Tour. The “postseason,” that will end its four-tournament run with the Tour Championship, is two weeks away and Johnson will be making his first appearance on the U.S. Ryder Cup squad in October.
The road is widening for Johnson and greater rewards will be his upon mastery of a thorough, and thoughtful, preshot routine.
Because, there are no dumb questions.
Mike Scarr is the editor of Golflink.com. He can be reached at golflinkeditor@demandmedia.com.
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He handled it with class, I will be rooting for Dustin from now on. Golf is in need of heroes, he will be the “Rocky” of this unfolding saga.
That mistake could have been prevented if he or his caddie had read the “Notice to Competitors”, or had asked their walking rules official, David Price. Also, Price should have reminded Johnson that he was in a hazard, which typically happens even in far lesser events.
The rules official really is there to help the players when he can. Ultimately, it wass Johnson’s responsibility, just as he admitted. He’s a class act.
Since when are spectators allowed to stand around in sand traps? Where were the marshals? Hey next time my guy is ahead and Tiger is a hole behind lets get fifty people to tromp around in the traps in case he goes in one. Johnson WAS robbed.
That incident with Dustin Johnson is a crock of you know what,Iam sure the powers to be at the Masters or the US open would not allow people to walk into the traps or throw garbage in them ,he got a raw deal.
I totally disagree that he is linked with De Vicenzo and Van De Velde. De Vincenzo signed a wrong scorecard and Van de Velde made a series of dumb decisions. This was an oversight by player and caddie that cost the player and isn’t even in the same galaxy as the other two. By the look of the bunker, Johnson’s mistake could have been made by anyone and while the ruling may have been correct, it discounted the lack of intent on the part of the player as irrelevant. Johnson wasn’t trying to gain any advantage. All in all, an unfortunate ruling against him and he took it with the same grace as the Detroit pitcher who was robbed of a perfect game. A hard lesson to all of us who watched it happen.
what is a “waste” bunker???
My $0.02…
I’ll go along with all of the above regarding the player’s responsibility to manage his game and rule awareness. Any competitive golfer knows the penalty for grounding a club in a hazard and would never do so knowingly or intentionally. The rule violation and penalty is technically justified.
However, this would have never happened if the ropes were beyond the range of a reasonable mishit into a bunker. Personally I have never seen a situation where people are standing in bunkers in a tournament. Had spectators even been cleared away from the lie, the fact that it was a bunker would have been obvious…..but they weren’t.
Conditions of play rules sheets and player responsibilities under the rules are too easy justifications for this unfortunate event. In my opinion the PGA is not blameless and bears some measure of responsibility for the circumstances that caused Dustin Johnson to not ask the question and mistake ground for hazard. How spectators can be permitted to be standing inside of legitimate sand bunkers in a major event is difficult for me to understand and accept.
I suspect that the PGA and other ruling bodies who have events at Whistling Straits will look carefully at this year’s PGA and make some adjustments. They need to in order to help prevent this from occurring again. It does not reflect well on the event management and the complexity of golf’s sacred and laborious rules.
This a hard lesson to learn, but from now on, I am sure, that he and all of the rest of the pros will be reading the list of local rules.
They should name that bunker, “Johnson’s Bunker”.
This ruling was ludicrous… didn’t anyone see where he hit that shot… someone show me a sand trap where the gallery is standing in that is not classified as a waste bunker… shame on the officials for ever ruling these pot holes hazards… what if the ball landed in a hole caused by a lawn-chair??? Or a host of other possibilities with the gallery camped in a ‘hazard’. Note to PGA… You can’t have the gallery in hazards no matter how much money you’re trying to make. What next… flotillas in green-side ponds? That young man worked too hard to be subject to your (PGA officials) incompetence. I believe they (PGA officials) would have had a tougher time with this ruling had the player been a foreign national. Of course they would have said… Oh no! What would the PGA been subject to if that was Lee Westwood or Sergio… probably an all-American tour… can you say boycott? Did anyone (media / fans) say to themselves… ‘he better be careful, he’s in a sand trap’… I guess the CBS staff didn’t read the memo either. Need I remind anyone that the announcing crew consist of all veteran players and not one of them suggested possible improprities.
Dustin clearly made a mistake in not reading the “local rules” sheet,so his loss was no ones fault but his own. That said, I believe the decision to play the “bunkers” located where the gallery could trample all through them, as anything but waste bunkers, showed extremely poor judgement by the PGA.
I am sure if you took an honest poll of all the golfers that a large majority of the players would have treated the lie the same as Johnson.
The question remains what defines a hazard? Peter Dye’s reputation as someone who hates golfers gains further proof with the making of this trap!
Gary Sandman
Nice article. I especially like the line… “It was one of Pete Dye’s misguided notions of architectural nuance.”
Of course DJ is ultimately responsible, but where was the walking official for the final group??
In the ‘08 US Open, a USGA official (Mike Davis) saved Rocco Mediate from an embarrassing penalty on the 19th hole of the Mon. playoff when he screamed at him “Ball’s in play! Ball’s in play!” after Mediate mistakenly thought his dropped ball had to rest in the drop area, not just land in it, and was bending over and trying to pick it up and re-drop it. Mediate would’ve lost the US Open right then and there with the penalty strokes, and that would’ve been the story, not Tiger’s heroics and Mediate’s incredible play.
The story the PGA is floating that the rules official couldn’t get to the bunker “because of the crowd” rings laughably hollow, and merely shifts the blame further onto itself for not properly managing the event and controlling the gallery. The fact that spectators were actually standing in the bunker both prior to and then when Johnson made his stroke is beyond belief. And DJ is supposed to operate under the assumption that that bunker gets treated the same way under the rules as a greenside bunker with a rake in it does? Please.
They’re just lucky DJ missed the putt. Can you imagine what would’ve happened had he made it? David Feherty on his way to get the triumphal interview would’ve collided with the rules official chasing Johnson down and peeling him off his caddy…and the Tour would’ve looked even more Mickey Mouse than it does now.
This never would’ve happened in a USGA event, that’s for sure.
P.S. You think they’d have made that same decision had it been Tiger’s ball? Or do you think that bunker would’ve been reclassified as a “waste bunker” on the spot due to changing course and crowd conditions, and Tiger goes unpenalized.
Interesting to ponder. Would they have taken Tiger’s chance for a 15th major away from him on that ruling?
You notice the garbage and food wrappers in the bunker, too? Lunacy.
Also, how many times do you think the same situation occurred on Thu. and Sat., and the unknowing player went unpenalized because there were no cameras on him?
I have to agree with Ron Mon…..I think the PGA rules officials took this one to the sublime. It is one thing to sign a scorecard incorrectly, but something completely different when everybody, and I mean everybody, saw the circumstances in EXACTLY the same manner as Dustin Johnson at the moment of play. To add insult to injury, I am told, but with no means of verifying, that the PGA rules official walking with the final group, was at that location at the time of the shot and didn’t even make mention to Johnson that he “might” be in a bunker. This tells me that EVEN the rules official on-site didn’t recognize it as a bunker!
In conclusion, I submit the following argument…..how can the PGA rules officials possibily call that a bunker, in play, when the viewing public has COMPLETELY and UTTERLY altered the landscape of the course of play. If that was clearly an identifiable sand trap at the beginning of the tournament, which it might or might not have been, I would represent to everyone that it CLEARLY was NOT an identifiable bunker by the 72nd hole.
It is possible that the PGA Rules Committee might need to consider a change to the rules of golf stipulating that any area of play that is not clearly marked as a hazard, but in turn altered to such a degree by the viewing public that it is no longer distinguishable as such, should not be deemed to be a hazard and thereby not infractionable to the golfer.
For what it is worth.
Ron Mon is entirely correct. Where was the ‘know it all about strategy’
Baker-Finch? Or the redoubtable Faldo..a man who knows dunes-links golf.
The tv camera gave us all long and thorough looks at the so-called ‘bunker’. Nothing was said about any memos or postings in the clubhouse or warnings on the first tee. These expert announcers were as
unprepared as a 20 handicapper.
I applaud Dustin Johnson for gracefully accepting the ruling whether he agreed with it or not. This will prove to be a contributing factor in Dustin’s greater success in the future. I assert that Dustin’s was more disappointed with hitting his tee shot where he hit it than the fact that he overlooked the rule. Had he stayed in thre fairway, the rule would not have come into play.
The rule, whether fair or not, was clearly stated in the rules sheet with a warning regarding foot print, tire tracks and other possible man made or disposed of not removable objects. Regretably, no one asked the question at the time, “Is this one of those conditions?).
Personally, I would prefer to see any areas that are played as hazards restricted from spectator or vehicular traffic. I also don’t think that a player should ber required to hit out of another player’s divot in the fairway.
Until such time as the governing rules authorities change the rules, they are what they are. Fair or unfair, they are equally fair or unfair for everyone.
Thank you Dustin Johnson for demonstrating the attitude of a champion.
The article is too critical of dustin johnson and not critical enough of the PGA Officials that were told to intervene in a situation of this sort. I hope one day the rules officials can get their shit straight because they’re costing players way too many strokes.
You can’t complain when the specific instruction has been given to you in writing! This was day four! Johnson owned up, as he should.
You can read the Local Rule for yourself as it’s posted on the right margin of the home page. Couldn’t be clearer.
If I was a PGA official, I would be embarrassed by the Dustin Johnson situation at the PGA. I am disappointed by your comment that “Dustin Johnson failed at the worst possible time.” I doubt the ability of Johnson’s caddie to do his job. And, last but not least, the media commentators once again showed their lack of knowledge inspite of their many years experience at the highest level of PGA play.
Johnson did not fail at the worst possible time, he hit a good shot from the spot in which he found himself. Did he not have a putt to possibly win the tournament outright? Not one of the media commentators stated after he made the shot that he would be penalized 2 strokes for grounding his club in a bunker.
Ah, the luxury of perfect 20/20 hindsight. Honestly, put yourself in his place at the time and place of the situation. The crowd had tramped down everything outside the ropes, including the so called “sandtrap.” There was no rake for the “trap.” The PGA defended their decision by stating that the local rule was that any disruption to the “trap” could not be raked. Brilliant, where else in the US are spectators or players allowed to mess-up the bunkers? And, then not allow the traps to be raked. Indeed, where else in the world is this so? Where else does the greenkeeping staff not know or is unable to count the number of sandtraps on their course? Johnson said in his press conference that after the “PGA” ruling the offical told him that any bit of sand on the course was considered to be a trap.
Finally, forget your 20/20 hindsight taking the easy was out. Johnson was on the last hole of the PGA with a one stroke lead. He just needed a par to win the Wannamaker trophy. He could see that he had a shot to the green. Did his caddie say, “hey that is a sandtrap?” No! The crowd was huge, the media video cameras were focussed on him only. He is 26 years old and never in a situation of this magnitude before. He was focussed on the game of golf not upon some obscure local rule.
Cut-out the simplistic hindsight. The PGA said that was the rule therefore they must be right. When people can no longer play the game they hide behind the rules. Why are the rules more important than the game and the players ability to play it? Dustin Johnson is no Robert De Vicenzo and Jean Van de Velde! He hit the shot and played the game that could have won him the PGA championship. He made a good shot, Van de Velde did not made any good shots on the 18th hole. Johnson did not make a pencil mistake. PGA must get it right and not blame the players for its poor rules decisions.
Yes, Mr. Johnson made a very costly mistake. It not only cost him but it also cost the prestige of golf. What other sport allows the audience on to the playing field during play? Officials should have protected those 1000 bunkers from spectators if they are to be treated as bunkers. I hope that not only Mr. Johnson but the PGA learned from this experience.
Ron — I was watching the PGA’s online feed of the “marquee group” and their commentators, which included former PGA champ Rich Beem, mentioned the trap well before DJ arrived at his ball From the video view I sa it was definitely a sand trap … as ridiculous as it is for such hazards to be so far from the fairway.
Also, the commentators mentioned right away — and were astonished! — that he might have grounded his club in the hazard, and raised the possibility of the penalty. They replayed the grounding several times right after he hit the shot.
It would be quite a shame if CBS had inferior coverage to this on-the-ball online feed.
– Mike in San Jose, Calif.
Completely agree with Ron!!!!
It is incredible that so much effort and talent was wasted on a SUPID technicality. And what’s more, PGA officials should be ashamed of themselves by creating a ridiculous rule on the outset of the tournament. Instead of writing lengthy and confusing memo describing how all sand on the course is a bunker, why didn’t they simply say that everywhere the audience is standing and walking through should be classified as rough/waste bunker? Don’t these top golfers have enough to worry about already?
I was shocked by the ruling. From my experience, a sand bunker is groomed and raked every time anyone goes in or hits a ball from there. Can’t say that the one DJ hit from looked groomed to me. It was more of a trampled down patch of dirt.
So, to sum this up. I think that according to the rules the PGA set out at the beginning of the tournament the ruling on DJ’s grounding of the club was correct. However, I feel that the rules were preposterous. I am wondering how many other players made the same mistake in the earlier rounds while not under scrutiny of TV cameras and went along unpunished with penalty strokes.
Shame on you PGA! I hope that you learn from this ugly episode and simplify the rules in the future. As far as Dustin Johnson is concerned, he played extremely well and deserved to be in the playoff. I hope with my whole heart that he will persevere and will continue playing excellent golf and win the next one.
I can do little more than agree with most of the comments above. If I was playing a Saturday medal in Scotland, never mind a major championship, I would not expect to have to play a shot from a bunker that had thousands of people runnning all over it. I hear what the PGA official said about notices and warnings and the ‘uniquness’ of the course, however I would contend that a sandtrap should have been clearly defined and visible as just that, at least DJ should have had a clear picture of the trap, as it clearly looked like nothing more than a ’sheep scrape’. Alternatively the PGA official(s) following the matched, should have intervened as the crowd was being ‘cleared’ (that’s rather a loose term when view the gallery position as he played the shot). I’m sorry but DJ was not entitirely or solely responsible for the fate that befell him, and it is my contention that the PGA made a mockery of their own professional and bear a huge load of responsibilty for their player’s innocent ‘misdemeanour’. Did any of the TV commentators, all with years of golf experience, suggest anything was amiss, no, there were all wiser after the event. Yes, he shouldn’t have hit his tee shot where he did (it is after all a perfect world), but given the circumstances he shouldn’t have expected to find a sandtrap (is that what it was)in the midst of 10,000 people.
I agree with Ron Mon. Granted, if I was his caddy he would have been sick of me repeating all weekend “everything is a bunker” anytime he was even close to sand.As with any sport, who knows when DJ will be back in this position again? It’s so hard to get on top of the leaderboard these days, as so many pros are finding out. You just hate to see a ruling like this that gives no advantage to the golfer have everyone guessing, “what if”. Martin Kaymer may be the one most bothered by the ruling because he has the trophy, and kudos to him for playing a super round, especially at the end under pressure, but deep down he knows his win will always be tainted since the golfing world would have liked to have seen DJ in that playoff also.
This whole thing has a lot more to do with Pete Dye intimidating the rules committees than any ‘brain cramp’ by Dustin Johnson. The PGA and USGA are desperately looking for ‘golf heros’ and with Tiger pretty much gone they’ll take anyone to hype in the media. So they try to elevate a course designer to superstar status and let his course turn a major tournament into a weird version of miniature golf. Good God, there wasn’t even any real sand in the bare patch that Johnson hit from, look at the replay. The PGA and USGA have to be consistent. Most of these bare spot are waste bunkers at best on other courses but Pete Dye claims his course has thousands of sand bunkers so the rules committee declares every bare patch on the course, a sand bunker???? The PGA owes Dustin Johnson a public apology!
I agree. People don’t go around standing in bunkers while watching a tournament. Since hundreds had been standing in this spot, it’s NOT a bunker. I feel cheated not being able to watch the three in a playoff.
I actually thought of it when he grounded his club the first time while watching live on TV. Then later I thought what a chicken s&$t ruling because the gallery had been standing in that sand the whole week. I felt better later when I learned that the PGA had pre-addressed the potential problem with their addendum to the rules that stated that all bunkers were subject to the penalty whether or not they are roped off. I feel bad for Dustin but a rule is a rule. Do I wish the rule was different? Yes I do. At least it wasn’t something the PGA hadn’t considered before hand.
Would “Tiger” have suffered the same fate. No! At worse, with the crowd dammage, the ground should have been declared “ground under repair.” A rake should have been brought, the player allowed to lift and drop in a repaired “bunker.” The officials are a “bunk.”
The gallery was totally surrounding the area…and standing in a bunker?…why?
There was a PGA Official standing there that should have cleared the area so that Johnson could have viewed his surroundings.
Futhermore, I find it interesting that a gallery that just watched a professional golfer push the ball so far off of his target…would provided him with (what appeared to be)less than a 10 foot wide “tunnel” to hit his next shot from a side hill lie…that’s crazy!
What a joke and a complete failure by the PGA. The course is built on sand, if someone takes a divot from the fairway and the next guy hits it into that divot, is that considered a bunker too. And the rules official that was following Dustin, where did he go? That lame crap about him not wanting to get in his way so he didn’t follow him is a joke. Lastly, what about Dustin’s caddie. I understand Dustin didn’t read the rule sheet, he should only be concerned with playing, but what about his caddie? He didn’t have time to read the rule sheet either? All in all it was a bonehead move by the PGA. The only star here is Dustin who handled it like the professional that he is. He knows he’s good enough that this won’t be his last run at a major. On a side note, why do these bonehead writers compare him to Van de Velde? Van de Velde blew a major by completely melting down on the final hole, Dustin was on the wrong side of a bonehead and arbitrary decision by the PGA. Comparing the two is like saying ice cream tastes like fish.
Of all pro sports ‘entertainment’, I prefer watching golf because it presents fewer annoying blown whistles and calls by officials.
Alas, this year’s PGA Wanamaker Trophy bears a spot of unseemly gilt (spelled g-u-i-l-t) and ‘officialdom’ tied to the tarnish roundly criticized and consequently rubbed in atonement rehab for the rules interpretation faux pas.
Oh, my dog in the fight, Bubba Watson, lost fair and square – compared to DJ’s impoundment. Nuts!
the ruling was a farce .. the pga cant have their cake and eat it to .. no way can you have random, unmarked hazrds that fans are standing in, be called a hazard .. whats next?? an unmarked tablespoon worth of sand 100 yards off a fairway – is that a hazard?? – or how many fans stand or sit in ponds by the green or sand traps beside the green – why dont they let them – let’s see some consistency .. how can you let fans stand in a hazard and call it fair, if that’s the case they should have a rules official camped out at every random unmarked hazard to let the players know that indeed theyve hit into a hazrd and give them their options, you cant just have a rules official charge after a player after the fact after seeing the video of it and telling the player at that point there is an issue because they just were improper in an unmarked hazrd .. in other words, if something is a hazard and fans are allowed to stand in it, mark it as such – guessing games are no place for the pga championship — Dustin was a class act through this all ..
Usually a large, often sandy area off the fairway that reflects more of the natural landscape. Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus have used them extensively in course design. Often seen in the Southwest and may include natural obstructions like rocks, cactus, shrubs, etc. These waste areas are not raked and are not considered regulation hazards, therefore penalty strokes for grounding your club do not apply.
I think your take on Dustin Johnson is provocative, and not thought provoking. Clearly, the majority of the responses here represent a closer proximity to the truth than your pathetic attempt humiliate Mr. Johnson.
The disaster at the 2010 PGA Championship began long before Dustin Johnson grounded his club in the alleged bunker. Your statement that he grounded his club in a hazard in in error; the fact is the ruling at the time was that he grounded his club in a bunker, not a hazard. The standards for a course, either in amateur or professional golf, includes bunkers within the fairway or next to the greens, and that is a fair and a Just challenge.
Just as there are standards for equipment, there must be standards for a course. This is the challenge of the bunker in golf. In this case the course did not meet the standards of a golf course when the PGA ruled that the areas out side of the ropes would be played as if they were inside the ropes and gave access to the public to gather upon those portions of the course thereby altering there nature.
A course to be fair, and must present all golfers with the same conditions with the lone exception being the weather for which there is no control. However, the care and consistency of the course lies in the hands of the governing committee. In this case, there was no way that the course could be properly maintained as the public was to be allowed onto the that portion of the course. therefore, those areas outside of control of the hosting body, could not, and should not, have been declared to be part of the course.
This is the second major this year to succumb to a failure to ensure that the course met a standard suitable for a golf tournament; the first being the conditions of the greens at the US Open. The PGA, while setting up the course to allow “conditions to prevail,” (meaning the weather) did a nice job. Yet, that same governing body made a huge mistake when it allowed the public to trample the course
The fault lies not in Mr. Johnson, but in the PGA, who, like all great committees, make horrid decisions at the wrong time. The decision to include areas outside of the course as part of the course was further compounded by allowing the public to assemble on the course proper. The resulting trampling of these declared bunkers added to the potential for a disaster to happen, and it did happen.
There has always been controversy surrounding Pete Dye designed courses. The use of “unnatural” material such as railroad ties is the most obvious. When the wrong people are getting attention, be it Mr. Dye, or Mike Davis at the U.S. Open, you are going to have a problem. The golfers, and rightfully so, are the celebrities, not the designers or the janitors.
The proof of error lies in the fruit born by the tree. This is not to take anything away from Mr. Kaymer, the eventual champion, but rather the say that his challenge should have included Dustin Johnson in the playoff.
The fault, once again, lies in rule by committee.
An unfortunate situation, but ruled correctly under the circumstances. For any further events at Whistling Straits, I suggest: the gallery should be kept away from any bunkers – wherever they are – or the bunkers should be filled in (at least for the event), or clearly marked or flagged as such, if they need to get the gallery that close. Many of us have seen how torn up a course can get with a lot of foot traffic. Let’s not have this happen again at a major tournament … and even less at a Ryder Cup!
Four days of golf ruined by the PGA. I won’t watch any more events at Whistling Straits. Boo!!
If That would have been tiger woods it would not have been a trap just like the boulder was a loose inpediment
If all the golfers were made aware that sand traps exist inside AND OUTSIDE the ropes and it certainly appears they were – both in writing and verbally and reminded by signage in the clubhouse – the ruling is correct, as tragic as it may have been for Dustin Johnson. I believe the PGA would have applied the same ruling if Tiger or Phil had made the same error, but its an irrelevant argument because they did not make the same error.
I said at the time while watching on CBS that he should ask to clear the people further away, give him some space. Maybe if he had, he would have had a better feel for his ball position. CBS showed a ball track animation that showed the ball landing in a group of bunkers. I’m guessing the course yardage books had a picture of the area and perhaps could’ve indicated that he may be in a bunker.
It all comes down to… Golf has its rules and as a PROFESSIONAL, it is part of your job to know the rules. The nature of the game as in baseball is that different courses have quirks. The PGA did their job by making the golfers aware of Whistling Strait quirks. Furthermore, every tournament has Rules Officials available for any question the golfer has. It is Dustin’s fault he ignored the warnings and failed to ask for a ruling.
The fact that he never disputed the ruling is an indication that he recognizes his mistake.
Keep spectators off the course , or move it to another venue;like Virginia
I agree that ultimately the responsibility falls on Johnson, but a significant amount of blame needs to go with the rules official. I was watching Golf Channel last night and they interviewed the rules official. He stated that when he walked up to the ball there was no doubt in his mind that it was a bunker. The only thing he did was ask Johnson if there was anything he needed. Johnson only said that he needed room to make his shot.
I was under the impression that it was Johnson’s responsibility to ask if it was a bunker. I found out this morning, again on the Golf Channel, that this is not the case. During the US Open, a couple of years ago, Rocco Mediate had a free drop. When he dropped the ball it hit in the drop zone, but bounced out. Mediate went to pick the ball up and do a redrop. The rules official yelled to him that it was a live ball and Mediate played from that spot. Had the rules official not called out Mediate would have been penalized. The rules official should have said to Johnson on walking up to the ball: “You’re in a bunker.”
I believe, the right thing for the PGA to have done would have been, did you know you were in a bunker? No. Did you ground your club? Yes. Mr. Rules Official, did you know he was in a bunker? Yes. Did you warn him that he was in a bunker? No. Ruling: No penalty. I’m sure Johnson’s first reaction to being told he was in a bunker was “You SOB, why didn’t you say anything!” He handled the situation with class and should be commended.
Can’t wait for Whistling Straight in 5 years!
Do I understand (does anybody?) from the rules (?ruling) that any player whose ball was on (or might be on) a few grains of sand should not have grounded their club? How many went unpunished over the four days? It is unavoidable to compare this with Tiger’s two hundredweight lose impediment (and his over the roof and into the carpark – that’s OK Tiger!) rulings. Unfortunately it seems that idiots sometimes make the rules and other idiots apply them – and I’m a European who was delighted to see Martin Kaymer win but would have been even more pleased if he’d won in the three man playoff that would have been the just climax to an enthralling last nine holes.
Ok, now then;
Martin Kaymer won fair and square
The correct ruling was applied
It’s a dumb rule however
Fix it for next time please
There needs be consistency on a course what is classified as a ‘bunker’
For the same penalty to apply they need to be classified and treated the same
For Example;
**All raked or none raked
**All marked or none marked
**Fans can stand in all bunkers or no bunkers
This includes ‘bunkers’ by the greens or anywhere on the course
Therefore in the future there needs to be either a level of consistency on how the rules are applied to a hazard that is classified as a bunker, OR they can’t all be classified as a bunker and ones that fit a differant criteria need to be called something else and the rules applied to each seperate classification.
So in a nutshell, call a spade a spade
The PGA deserves a big black eye for this travesty. By not controlling spectators and relying on a video instead of an official in the field they have robbed this young man of a rightful chance at their highest awarded tournament. The PGA should be very proud.