Quick update – after yesterday’s debacle, John is traveling today and will post his recap of Sunday's final round, and other tidbits from the weekend, late tonight or tomorrow morning. Everything from the PGA Championship is pent up and after what happened yesterday, there is sure to be much discussed and a few (I can think of one) controversies to have an opinion on. The topics are sure to include the PGA of America, Herb Kohler, Pete Dye and more....
--- FOTB Staff
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3 comments:
Interested in seeing your comments....Im no golf purist, so I don't feel a need to penalize for a non-competitive advantage, but if the PGA is going to do so then do it right. He grounded his club twice, and his caddie put the bag down in the bunker. Therefore, wasn't the correct ruling a 6 stroke penalty? Can we DQ the PGA of America for this blunder of incorrectly enforcing their own 'local rules'?
It ruined my day of watching the tournament.
John, thanks for taking that PGA official to task. This exemplifies why I can't take the PGA seriously; that professional golf is a mere point of interest to me as a general sports fan and not something I truly care about (I am not including the game itself).
It may well be that the notices of these sand patches were posted as bunkers - and yes, I know that the PGA's supporters are not relishing Johnson's fall (they may well be hoping he wins a major someday) and yes, the rules must be followed even when the rules are an a**.
But rules like this are an a**. What makes the PGA so appealing to so many (a gentleman's game, code-of-honor and all that) - and perhaps makes it a superior sport in their eyes: are what makes this a travesty in my eyes.
That something like this and the Roberto DeVincenzo case are permitted to take place is sad. No, they clearly aren't "just like us" - they wouldn't be gaining all these endorsements and appearing on TV if they were.
I do feel sorry for Martin Kaymer; hopefully he won't have an asterisk next to his name as a result of this mess.
With due respect to Ed - and I seem to be shockingly in the minority on this - I can't believe that the Dustin Johnson situation is even a controversy. Johnson's ball obviously lay in a bunker. As USGA official David Price has stated, it never occurred to him that he needed to assertively tell Dustin that the bunker was a bunker because it was never in doubt. As I watched David Feherty stand in what was obviously a bunker say that it was not a bunker and you watch replay after replay of Johnson's ball sitting in the middle of nothing but sand I was and remain baffled. It is disappointing that, in a year that where golf celebrated its preemiment role in sportsmanship with Brian Davis calling a penalty on himself for something that was almost imperceptible even in slow motion replay, so many commentators and smart golf people are whining about this simply because they feel sorry for DJ. Pure and simple, Dustin Johnson and his caddy blew it, made a bonehead mistake. Emotionally, we may feel for Dustin but but blaming the officials or the USGA or being in denial about whether or not he was in a bunker is absurd.
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