The ruling that cost Dustin Johnson a place in a playoff and chance to win the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on Sunday is a shame. But it's hard to blame anyone for it. Johnson was assessed a two-stroke penatly for grounding his club in a bunker on the 18th hole, costing him a spot in the playoff with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson that was won by Kaymer.
It's tough to blame Dustin under the circumstances, with members of the gallery actually standing in the area that was deemed to be a bunker by rules officials of the PGA of America. Knowing spectators had been trampling that area for seven days, its understandable how Johnson thought it was just an area worn down by the number of people walking on it during the week. The sand was more like dirt than what most would consider bunker sand. CBS announcer David Feherty was near Johnson when he hit the shot, and Feherty said it never crossed his mind that Johnson might be hitting out of a bunker. Johnson certainly didn't benefit from grounding his club and wasn't attempting to benefit, and obviously wasn't violating a rule maliciously. It certainly seemed impossible to delineate where the bunker began and ended, particularly after being beaten down by spectators for a few days. The area in which Johnson was hitting had random clumps of grass and weeds, not to mention spectators and their trash and debris, and no discernilbe lip that completely encompassed the sand.
But it's also hard to blame tournament rules officials for assessing Johnson the penalty, especially when you consider they made a point of attempting to inform the players about the hundreds of bunkers around the course that could be misconstrued as non-bunkers. The 2004 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits proved to PGA of America officials they had to have a consistent stance on bunkers on the periphery of holes.
Mark Wilson, co-chairman of the PGA rules committee, said the postings in the locker room were meant to inform players that "all areas of the course that were designed and built as bunkers will be played as bunkers whether they're inside or outside of the ropes. . . . That might mean many areas outside the ropes that might contain many footprints, heel prints or even tire tracks from golf cars or other vehicles," Wilson said.
Apparently, few players read the rules sheets. "Honestly, I don't think anyone reads the sheets," Watney said. "I mean, we've played in hundreds of tournaments, we get a sheet every week."
There were certainly things that could have been done differently and better. Johnson and his caddie Bobby Brown could have read the rules. Johnson could have requested a ruling from David Price, the walking official with the final pairing of Johnson and Nick Watney, on whether he was in a bunker. Or Price could have offered the information unsolicited. Either of those would have been prudent. Price could have also instructed the volunteer marshalls to move the crowd back away from the ball, thereby making the shape of the bunker more evident. It was hard enough for Johnson just to work his way through the gallery, nevermind try to identify a bunker with spectators and debris in it.
Johnson birdied three of the final six holes and deserved to be in the playoff and have a chance to win a major title. But its hard to place blame for what on the surface seems to be a travesty of golf justice. It's one of the quirks of golf, a sport in which the rules are often vague and seemingly unneccesary at times, but must be enforced for the integrity of the game.
