For those of you who did not watch, you missed one of the most bizarre, heartbreaking finishes in golf tournament history. The victim - Dustin Johnson.
Dustin JohnsonNow, before we get into this specific tournament, you may remember Dustin as the young guy who went into the final Sunday at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with the lead and proceeded to BLOW UP, lose the lead, and shoot one of the worst final rounds by a leader in major championship history (82). After the event, many speculated that his epic collapse was one of such humongous proportion that he may never bounce back...
Well, he proved everyone wrong a few weeks later where once again, he carded a great score at the British Open (the year's 3rd Major) and showed he wasn't going to fall by the wayside.
Which brings us to this weekend's PGA Championship. On this fateful Sunday, Dustin found himself two shots back and paired with the 54-hole leader, Nick Watney. I could also write a whole post about Watney's Sunday performance, which rivaled the stink-bomb of Johnson's at Pebble Beach that I mentioned earlier - but suffice to say that Nick ended up shooting an 81 and played his way right off the leaderboard. But back to Dustin...
For the entire round, Dustin really couldn't get anything going in terms of scoring, but he played steady, consistent golf and kept his name toward the top of the leaderboard as he made his way to the final five holes of the course. After hitting the ball well all day, he finally started sinking putts, and after an impressive birdie-birdie sequence on the 16th and 17th holes, Dustin found himself in the familiar position of leading a major. Only this time, it was on the final hole of the tournament, and he knew what he had to do. Par, and he wins. Bogey, and he ties Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer and goes to a 3-hole playoff.
Par to win, bogey to tie.
His nerves were startlingly apparent right away, as he shanked his drive way right into the gallery of fans. It was so far off that we couldn't see the ball through all the rabid fans running to stand next to what was about to be the most important shot of the tournament.
As Johnson reached his ball, he was quite surprised to find his ball sitting cleanly on a patch of soft dirt, obviously trampled by all the walking traffic of the fans. He had a clean lie, and the throng of fans opened a path for him to the green. He ended up hooking the ball way left, but made one of the best chips of his life to get the ball close for a shot at par and the outright lead. And what does he do? He missed the putt!
So right now you're thinking, "Boring story Marc, what's so heartbreaking or crazy about that?" Read on my friends, read on....
As Johnson walked off the green, noticeably upset about having missed the putt to win the tournament outright, the head rules official met him on the edge of the green, and shook his hand. At the time I figured he was giving him instruction as to where to go for the 3-hole playoff. But man was I wrong...
The broadcaster came over the air to tell the CBS audience that the official had informed Johnson that when he was on that patch of dirt on the 18th hole amidst all the fans, he was actually in a sand trap. And when he was in that sand trap, he grounded his club before his shot (for those of you non-golfers - when you're in a sand trap, you're not allowed to touch your club to the sand in your pre-shot routine or during any practice swings, or else it's a 2-stroke penalty). Well, Johnson and the rest of the world were incredulous.
Click here for the video recap.
As mentioned, Whistling Straits has over 1,200 sand traps on the course, almost 25% of which are way out of bounds and unreachable. The traps are also wide-ranging in size - some the size of a lake, some the size of my shin. Well, let me tell you - there was no way to know that Johnson was standing in a sand trap. By the time he got to his ball, there were fans standing in the sand trap (when have you ever seen fans in a sand trap???), and there was no sign of a lip or edge or anything to indicate he was in a trap. Hell, the ground was hard, not powdery like a...sand trap.
CBS showed countless replays of Johnson in that spot, his club definitively grounded (it's true, he did ground it). The question was never "Did he ground the club?" or "Does he know the rules?" The point of dispute came down to one question "Was it a sand trap?"
Sadly, the technical answer was "Yes". The course layout has that labeled as a sand trap, and the rules sheet said that any ground resembling a sand trap should be treated like a sand trap. So in objective, heartless context - yes, Johnson grounded a club in sand trap.
But how the f*** could he have possible known that? Sure, in retrospect, he could have said "Hey Mr. Marshal, would you please come look at this ball, which is sitting on a hard patch of dirt, which is surrounded by fans standing on the dirt, with no sign of an edge or lip in sight, and let me know if this is a sand trap?" But nobody would have even had that thought enter their mind - not Dustin, not Tiger, not Phil, not Jack Nicklaus. Johnson was up a creek with no paddle.
There was nothing he could do. The rules said there were traps all over, and were to be treated as such. He grounded his club.
So he got the 2-stroke penalty. And oh yeah, it dropped him from tied for 1st-place, to a tie for third place. As horrible as this was, could you imagine if he had sunk the putt? He would have celebrated immensely, thrown his hat in the air, done the obligatory fist-pump, chucked his ball into the crowd, high-fived his caddy, cried in his arms, pointed to the heavens, and every other conceivable celebration tactic...
...and then be told that his par actually was only good enough to make him finish second?
That's too horrific for me to even think about. It's bad enough that even when he missed the putt, he had the temporary consolation of knowing he could still go win the playoff against Watson and Kaymer. But, in hindsight, I'm really glad he missed that putt. Cuz it would have been too heart-wrenching to watch.
So now, if you're Johnson, what do you do? You have assessed yourself the 2-stroke penalty, lost the tournament, and are no longer part of the (now uber-anticlimactic final) 3-hole playoff. Let's just say half the media who normally walk the course during a playoff sat camped outside the locker room, just hoping to get a sound-bite from the expectedly and deservedly-pissed Dustin Johnson. I expected Johnson to decline comment, allow his temper to die down, not say anything stupid, and respectfully get out of dodge ASAP.
But he didn't leave. He didn't hide.
He came right out of the locker room, straight from a shower that I'm sure he wished would wash the whole nightmare scenario away. And he stood in front of those cameras, listened to the media ask questions baiting him to rip on the scoring officials, and he took the high road. He was obviously upset, and admitted he had no clue it was a bunker and disagreed that it was a bunker. But he didn't rip on the rules committee. He didn't rip the PGA. He told it like it was. He said, (paraphrase) "They told me I grounded my club in the bunker. It never even crossed my mind it was a bunker. It's a tough pill to swallow." He thinks its wrong, but he's not calling for anyone's head. And as the new hot, young star who just got robbed of a chance to play in a playoff for the PGA Championship - nobody would have faulted him if he did.
Golf is so cut and dry. I love it, and on days like today, I hate it. There are rules, and its officials do not look keenly on subjective interpretations. But Johnson deserved one today. I understand he grounded a club in a "bunker", but this is a hard one to shake off, even as a fan.
Dustin - I applaud you for your demeanor and your interactions with the media. I commend you for being a stand-up guy during a shi**y moment. But most of all, I applaud you for taking your collapse at Pebble Beach, not using it as an excuse, but rather using it as fuel, and coming a sand trap away from winning another major within the same year.
You earned points in my book today. Now if only those points meant anything.
*Footnote - Oh yeah, Martin Kaymer won the playoff.
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