Two Stroke Penalty on the PGA

The organization dedicated to growing the game of golf managed to take a step backward this past weekend with the unsettling conclusion of the 2010 PGA Championship.

On the 18th hole of the final round, with a one stroke lead, Dustin Johnson appeared to have just missed a putt for a scrambling par that would have secured him the title. Settling for bogey, he would still have a chance for victory in a 3-man, 3-hole playoff, or so he thought. Instead he was assessed a two stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker on his second shot, leaving him two strokes back and out of the playoff.

It was one of those instances where I'm sure casual fans said, "huh?" (or stronger) as the situation seemed unfair. It made a bit more sense to seasoned golf fans like me, but I think the situation could have been avoided. If you're still confused, I'll break it down for you and provide three keys to remember for both the PGA and players alike.

The PGA Championship is sponsored by the Professional Golfers Association of America, the club professionals who teach golf and run golf courses. The PGA's stated purpose is to grow the game of golf, which is ironic, since I can't imagine the conclusion Sunday made many new golf fans.

The rule that Dustin Johnson violated is pretty straightforward. All but the most hackneyed hackers know you can't ground a club (as in set on the ground) in a bunker or other hazard. The problem is that Whistling Straits where the event was held is not your average venue and the final hole of the final round of a major championship is a unique setting and situation.

Whistling Straits is a spectacular course set on the edge of Lake Michigan sculpted in the style of the great links courses of the British Isles. A shout out to my buddy Howie who played it recently and sent me the yardage book (best yardage book ever, seriously), which I referred to frequently as I watched the coverage over the weekend. While it's a dazzling layout, to me it loses points because it's not authentic, as that landscape was created by bulldozers and earth movers, not mother nature, a fact you could see whenever the camera shots from the Met Life blimp pulled back to reveal farmland on the neighboring property. My buddy CJ, aka Kid Philly, said it reminded him of a great course we used to play in Denver called Murphy Creek -- I agree.

One unique attribute of Whistling Straits is that it has, literally, countless bunkers. Some are huge and some are tiny, but they're everywhere, with an estimate of 1,200 across the property. Given that there were also 50,000 people attending the event, it's inevitable that fans ended up standing in or walking through many of the bunkers that were far removed from the fairways.

The PGA of America made the curious decision that the bunkers where fans walked through (outside the ropes, as it were) would still be played as hazards (meaning you can't ground the club), and not simply as waste areas, where players play the ball as it lies as they would in any other spot on the fairway or rough.

So when Dustin flared his drive on the 18th, he didn't realize that he was in a bunker. He was surrounded by thousands of fans, and while the ball was lying on sand, it was hard-packed, with footprints, wrappers and people all over it.

It never occurred to him that he was in a bunker so he followed his usual routine (usual for the last hole leading a major with 5,000 people surrounding him forming a tunnel the size of a bowling alley to hit through on his approach to the green) and grounded his club (though Dustin must have admitted to this, because I never saw that definitively on the replay).

As he walked off the green with a 5 (soon to be a 7), a PGA official grabbed him and gave him the news that there might be a problem -- understatement.

So here's my advice/comments in no particular order.

1) PGA, what were you thinking having the bunkers outside the ropes played as hazards? While I believe they were in good faith trying to preserve the integrity of Pete Dye's design, as they stated, I believe that decision was misguided and naive.

That would never, ever be done on any other course. You would either keep people out of the bunkers (impractical at WS) or play them as waste areas (better option -- no offense Pete).

When I say naive, I think that rule would have been fine for a practice round, but clearly the PGA had not thought through the circumstances of having so many people around (as you might, say, on the 18th hole of a major) that the bunker itself was not readily identifiable.

To its defense the PGA warned the players this would be the rule with its daily briefing sheets and this is where Dustin lost some sympathy points by confessing he never reads those. Hey, I don't read half my emails. Maybe they should text these alerts to the younger players.

Food for thought on the 2015 PGA and 2020 Ryder Cup, both scheduled to be held at WS: get rid of some of those bunkers and keep people out of them, or play them as waste areas.

2) Thanks Rules Official -- Not. Yes, Dustin had a rules official walking with his group, who I didn't realize until tonight actually had gone up to the spot in the "bunker".

The official said in an interview on golf channel he was focused on getting the crowd under control so Dustin could play his shot, but boy it would have been nice if he'd said before doing crowd control duty, "By the way, per the local rules sheet, you know you’re in a bunker, right?" He seems like a sincere guy and I kind of feel for him, though he stretched credulity with me when he said it never occurred to him that Dustin wouldn't realize he was in a bunker. I bet the cheeseheads who had been standing there for two hours didn't realize they were in a bunker as some thought they were at a Packers game.

I think in the unique situation of a major those rules officials need to be more proactive and even responsible. Yes, golf is great because players themselves enforce the rules, etc. etc. But, the PGA goes to the trouble of having a rules official with every group and roving uberofficials can be summoned as well, so it's not like they've completely handed the reins to the players.

Golf will never move to an officiating model like football -- where if the ref doesn't throw the flag, there's no penalty -- nor should it. But let's put some of the responsibility on them to monitor and control these situations to make the call before there are problems.

Oh, and when that rules official meets you at the green and tells says you "may be" be penalized (or DQ'd, or whatever the case may be) there's no "maybe" about it -- your (Retief) Goosen is cooked. Sometimes you catch the officials on the mikes, and they're empathetic and folksy, almost reassuring: "Let's just go in to the trailer and take a look at the TV replay." Bull -- the jury is in (or out?), and the verdict is signed, sealed, and delivered. They've made up they're mind and you're not leaving that trailer until you change your score to what they say it is.

3) The TV replay is not your friend. This is really a corollary to number 2 and while the TV replay was not instrumental in the Johnson situation, TV will always be used against you and not for you. Players have been penalized when TV viewers spotted something and called in, but it's never going to be used to bail you out.

A case in point is Dustin Johnson -- at Pebble Beach. As Dustin Johnson was melting down in the final round of the US Open, playing the 3rd hole, he hit his drive way left near the 16th green and went into a lateral hazard. There was nowhere else his ball could have been, but because no one saw the ball enter, it couldn't be assumed to be in the hazard. Thus instead of being able to take a drop at that spot, he had to declare a lost ball and go back to the tee.

Now, in this instance, the spot near the 16th hitting two would probably have not been much better than hitting three from the tee, and in the end of the day mattered little. But while I'm sure a TV replay could have been used to see if he'd grounded his club in the bunker or some such, they're not going to use a blimp shot to locate where the ball landed.

Going back to the situation at the PGA, it's interesting that when CBS used its golf trax gizmo to show where the ball landed, it actually indicated (correctly, it turns out) it was in a bunker, and I heard (but don't remember) Jim Nantz said the same thing. It's ironic because as soon as they showed the ball in the crowd, it looked like it was on a bare patch of dirt, and neither Nantz, Nick Faldo, or David Feherty suggested it was in the bunker.

So the lesson is while TV doesn't lie, it's not going to used to back your side of the story.

Conclusion:
It's too bad this PGA will be remembered for the Dustin Johnson saga, because it was a thrilling afternoon, with the likes of Steve Elkington, Rory McIlroy, and Zach Johnson all in the hunt, not to mention the great play of Martin Kaymer, the eventual champion who battled Bubba Watson in the playoff. And Dustin Johnson's own solid play may be forgotten too, as he exorcized the demons of his final round struggles at Pebble Beach.

Once the incident happened, the PGA got it right. Given the rules they'd set out, there was no choice but to penalize Johnson, but it seems like the PGA could have avoided the situation with a common sense course set up and more proactive officiating.

I'm not a proselytizing golfer -- other than the fact I don't want to see courses struggle financially, I'd rather see them less crowded than more. But it is too bad that on what could have been a day to showcase some of the best young players and the excitement of golf, the PGA had to defend its conduct of the championship. Upon review PGA of America, I'm afraid there may be a problem. "Let's just go in to the trailer and take a look . . . ."