OT: Dustin Johnson's 18th Hole: terrible way to finish or the worst way to finish?
Back story:
Johnson up 1 on 18, par to win. Pushes drive wayyyyyyy right. Into some dirt. Grounds club, strokes one left of the green. Beautiful third shot sets up for par putt to win.
Misses the putt. No big deal, playoff time.
But wait! The PGA says he grounded the club (which he did) on second shot in the bunker... BUNKER?! How can that possibly be considered a bunker?!
Now the kid goes from 1st place to out of the playoff because of a penalty that he wasn't even aware should have been in play. Assuming of course the PGA decides that way.
Ridiculous, in my view.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:24 PM ^
Shame on the PGA for letting people sit and stand in the "bunker".
August 15th, 2010 at 11:03 PM ^
Needed a birdie to win, would of been a travesty if he actually hit the putt and then they took it away.
August 15th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
August 15th, 2010 at 7:25 PM ^
This. He couldn't have known if that was a bunker. If it is a bunker, don't have people trampling there for 5 fucking days.
This is bullshit.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:27 PM ^
Horrific call by the rules official. I feel so bad for Dustin Johnson.
August 16th, 2010 at 4:59 PM ^
By-the-book-correct call. Absolutely no other way to call it, once it happened.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:28 PM ^
I can't even fathom myself supporting the PGA Championship ever again.
August 16th, 2010 at 5:02 PM ^
Right?
Now, it is true that the PGA of America (which isn't even the PGA Tour) marks the course and assigns on-course officials. But the rule is a USGA rule, as are all the official Rules of Golf.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:30 PM ^
I agree with everyone else. If there are people standing in the damn thing, how the hell can you tell it is a bunker. All the places that the crowd has been standing look like that. Complete bullshit.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:31 PM ^
I will personally be reviewing the last round to see if Watson or Kaymer grounded their club in something that could be considered a 'bunker'
August 15th, 2010 at 7:37 PM ^
Go for it.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:33 PM ^
LOL. That's exactly what I was thinking. Are you the head of the PGA or something? :)
August 15th, 2010 at 7:32 PM ^
At least he's got that going for him.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:30 PM ^
but yeat, agreed.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:33 PM ^
Did anyone else see that Bubba Watson hit sand wedge into a 587 yard par 5 earlier this week? This guy is a freak.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:34 PM ^
Yeah, definitely rooting for Bubba at this point.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:38 PM ^
He got hosed!!!
August 15th, 2010 at 7:42 PM ^
Not the worst way -- the worst way would have been if he'd sank the putt and gone from thinking he won it outright to not even being in the playoff.
August 16th, 2010 at 5:03 PM ^
That is SO true!
August 15th, 2010 at 7:44 PM ^
Handled his post round interview with DF in the classiest way possible.
I have a new favorite golfer.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:48 PM ^
August 15th, 2010 at 7:57 PM ^
Full disclosure, I'm originally from Milwaukee (as the mispelled screename shows) have played Whistling Straights and might have a pro-course homerism, but the rules are the rules and that's listed as a bunker and I don't know what else the PGA could have done. It is heart breaking (especially after what happened at the US Open), but I don't blame anyone.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:11 PM ^
I'm watching with someone who caddied at Whistling for three years, and he said the exact same thing. All of those are designed bunkers, and the PGA officials posted in multiple places that they would be treated as such. It absolutely sucks for him, totally heartbreaking, but there's no other way the rules could have been interpreted, especially after them making it as clear as possible that regardless of whether they were trampled on that they were bunkers by definition.
As a side note, the guy I'm watching with also works with the head rules official that they interviewed, and said no one in the world has be better knowledge of the rules.
How would you like to be the official to talk to Dustin if he HAD made that putt. I'd probably just jump in the lake and swim away.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:07 PM ^
Perhaps the PGA could have enforced typical tournament protocol and not allowed 5000 spectators to walk over and trample a 'bunker' for four days?
August 15th, 2010 at 8:12 PM ^
Impossible. There are thousands of bunkers there, many of them not in play, and with that many people there's no way.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:13 PM ^
Oddly enough, right after Johnson's drive, CBS put up a graphic indicating the flight of his ball, and it clearly showed the ball had landed in a bunker. Yet I don't think any of the announcers noted it at the time.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:14 PM ^
I need to know Section 1's take on this occurrence...and I hope to god his tv wasn't pre-empted or his cable didn't fail.
IMHO, the PGA of America needs to clearly mark the spectator areas and enforce the same. Having attended several Ryder Cups and US Opens I can say with certainty this would never happen in those environments.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:36 PM ^
it was don that got all pissy yesterday not section 1...
August 16th, 2010 at 6:55 AM ^
my bad...
August 16th, 2010 at 5:25 PM ^
I didn't get "all pissy." I commented on the dubious editorial judgment at WWJ-TV, in leaving a live Major Tournamant with international importance, to pick up the first 10 minutes of a meaningless Lions preseason game. Moreover, I got accused of not understanding that more people in metro Detoit like to watch football than golf (which is what I suspected to begin with), and of not understanding that it was only the Third Round (which I also had clearly understood from the outset).
Had this happened in the last group playing the 18th hole live on Saturday, rather than Sunday, Detroit viewers would have missed it.
I am not one bit sorry for having started that thread -- the Dustin Johnson incident nearly proved how prophetic I might have been, just 24 hours earlier.
I have posted elsewhere how the ruling was exactly the correct ruling.
Oh, and for the golf-challenged, as well as the golf cognoscenti -- the best all around golf news blog on the 'net is www.GeoffShackelford.com . Geoff has multiple pages on the ruling, the controversy, the architectural problems created by Pete Dye, the media scrum, etc.
August 16th, 2010 at 10:41 AM ^
August 16th, 2010 at 5:28 PM ^
This would likely never happen in a USGA event like a U.S. Open. The USGA almost never allows for the existence of the strange unsanctioned phenomenon known as "waste bunkers" or "waste areas." The USGA sets up their championship courses years in advance to eliminate those areas, or else it treats them as strict hazards. (They tried to impress that upon the players at Whistling Straits, in fact. Without complete success, obviously.)
As for your picking on the PGA of America, I hope you realize that they do control the setup of Ryder Cup venues, just like they do the PGA Championship, right? The Ryder Cup Matches are not the property of the USGA, or the PGA Tour, Inc.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:33 PM ^
What exactly does it mean to "ground" a club?
August 15th, 2010 at 8:52 PM ^
You're not allowed to touch the ground with your club when you're in a bunker. He rested the club head on the sand, so it was a 2 stroke penalty.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:41 PM ^
This is actually my preferred method of cheating, given the consistency with which I find sand traps.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:58 PM ^
I know they need a little bit of controversy to fill the void of Tiger not being in contention, but this is going a little too far. There was no way to tell he was even in a bunker. I know "the rules are the rules," etc, but there was no lip and the "bunker" was flat and full of people. If something is a bunker, then don't let fans walk in it. Even the British Open does that.
All this does, though, is keep people from talking about a much bigger problem for USA golf:
Without a dominant Tiger Woods to bail the USA out, we really, really suck in majors. US players won one out of four this year. Until we start to do some serious junior development for those of all backgrounds or the price of golf and practice comes down to where those closer to the poverty line can afford to play, other countries will continue to humiliate us in our own majors.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:28 PM ^
I know they need a little bit of controversy to fill the void of Tiger not being in contention, but this is going a little too far.
You're being sarcastic, right? You honestly think there's someone sitting behind a desk somewhere that said, "This isn't exciting enough without Tiger at the end, let's give him a couple penalty strokes?"
How is a 2 man playoff better than a 3 man playoff?
August 15th, 2010 at 9:02 PM ^
FWIW from @TomVH
My dad was a rules official for the PGA Championship for 7 years. He spotted that penalty, unsurprisingly.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:13 PM ^
The kid played some great golf this weekend, that chip on 16 was amazing. Could you imagine the mayhem that would have happened if he nailed that putt ? I feel bad for the guy, he blew his second major tournament (U.S. Open).
August 15th, 2010 at 10:41 PM ^
I have been around golf my whole life as a caddy and player and have to say, when I saw him grounding the club in sand my instinctive reaction was, "uh oh, don't touch it". However, I was not in the crush of people he was in and had a much more relaxed vantage point. It was absolute madness around that ball and someone should have cleared the entire area so he could collect himself and take in the situation.
Apparently they did warn the players that all sand would be considered bunker but some official should have intervened and at least cleared everyone out of the "bunker" so he could see it for what it was. It was badly handled.
IMO they should have used red spray paint to mark anything outside the lines they were counting as a bunker.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:46 PM ^
Johnson went Happy Gilmore on his caddy: "Where were you on that one, dipshit?"
August 15th, 2010 at 10:55 PM ^
haveing played tournament golf, and having walked on and made the MIchigan golf team back in the day, this is an unfortunate situation, but handled correctly.
to those of you who ranted and raved against the PGA, I hope you know your football better than you know golf.. Local rules, such as the sheet the PGA handed to players every round, reminded the players that all sandy patches are to be considered bunkers. As Johnson said,"I guess I should spend more time reading the rules sheet". As incredible as it seems to have had people standing in the bunker with the player, he could have asked them all to move, and he didnt.
The only bright side is that he missed the putt, and the official did not have to walk out on the green in the middle of the celebration and waive it off.
By the way, had the Rules people not pointed this situation out to Johnson before he signed his card, and had he sigend the card for the 5, he would ultimiately have been disqualified for signing an incorrectly low card........so at least he still collected a few hundred thou.
August 16th, 2010 at 10:02 AM ^
I agree with everyone that has said that why are spectators allowed to walk in bunkers all day. I also agree that the player knows they are in the sand and should have requested advice before hitting the shot with a 1 shot lead. With all this being said my biggest issue is with the PGA professional assigned to the group that did not go up and help Dustin as he hit the biggest shot of his life to that point. Watney has blown up and the PGA pro does not need to be with him on the 2nd shot on 18. The PGA pro did need to go and help Dustin before anything bad happened. As much as the player needed to ask for help, the PGA pro needed to be in position to offer help whether it was requested or not.
August 16th, 2010 at 10:22 AM ^
I didnt know that. what a gag job for that guy.
August 16th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^
I was at the PGA yesterday at Whistling Straights
Beauitful course, but i agree something needs to be done regarding that !
The crowd over their i thought was way way to close, considering all the shots i saw yesterday , as i was sitting in the gallary by the 18th green !
That 18th hole is no joke !
Lake Michigan overlooking the course is amazing !
1200 plus bunkers is nuts
1st time at a major, but had an awesome time, and saw some great golf !
also Rickie Fowler's orange outfit
Also, Met Jim Bolden, starting corner on the Wolverines 76 rose Bowl team, let me try on his 76 Rose Bowl ring, we talked for about 15-20 minutes, very nice guy !
Wore the Ohio worst state ever shirt yesterday too, i got 20 compliments for that shirt at least, plus some ladies wanted to take some pictures with me because i was wearing it !
That shirt is awesome !
Overall, an awesome day at Whistling Straights