Rules are rules.
Those are the only words that matter when discussing Dustin Johnson’s second shot on hole No. 18 of this year’s PGA Championship. Johnson, who originally finished Sunday’s final round with a share of first place at 11-under, was given a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker on the final hole.
There was plenty of controversy over the rule that cost Johnson a shot at the title, and the image will unfortuantely be remembered more so than Martin Kaymer’s three-hole playoff victory over Bubba Watson late Sunday afternoon. But it was the right call.
After Johnson’s tee shot on the 500-yard par 4 went way right, he approached his ball which had come to rest in a sandy area away from the field of play. Before lining up to take his shot, Johnson put his clubhead next to the ball and then again before he took his shot.
Johnson finished the hole with a bogey, but was then taken into the clubhouse by PGA officials to let him know of his miscue. A stunned Johnson was then forced to erase his “5″ and switch it to a “7,” before ultimately signing his scorecard and bumping him down to 9-under.
Johnson claims the thought never crossed his mind that he was hitting from a bunker, as the area had been trampled down and used as a viewing area for fans the entire week.
Having been at the Straits for Saturday afternoon’s completion of the second and third rounds, it’s easy to see why Johnson was confused. There are plenty of bunkers (over 1,000) and sandy areas on the course, some of which spectators are able to stand in to watch. Those bunkers were far off the course and unreachable in most instances, but bunkers nonetheless.
There was also a notice inside the Straits’ locker room that warned players and caddies that, although sandtraps were out of the immediate playing field and used as viewing areas, they were indeed hazards and must be played as such.
All Johnson had to do was ask PGA official David Price for a ruling on where his ball laid, something he had done twice before during the round.
Dustin Johnson's situation is unfortuante, but rules are rules and he didn't follow them. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
On hole No. 14, Johnson asked Price if he could take practice swings in a bunker his ball had just cleared. Then again on hole No. 16, Johnson’s caddie asked if he could remove stones from a bunker surrounding Johnson’s ball. In both instances Johnson was awarded his request, so there’s no reason he couldn’t have done so on the final hole.
Since the area Johnson was hitting from on the final hole was a bunker, the rules apply to him. Rule 13-4 in the USGA handbook states this clearly:
1. Bunkers: “All areas of the course that were designed and built as sand bunkers will be played as bunkers (hazards), whether or not they have been raked. This will mean that many bunkers positioned outside of the ropes, as well as some areas of bunkers inside the ropes, close to the rope line, will likely include numerous footprints, heel prints and tire tracks during the play of the Championship. Such irregularities of surface are a part of the game and no free relief will be available from these conditions.”
Just because the bunker had been trampled and wasn’t a traditional bunker does not mean Johnson had any special cause for putting his club down. The information was accessible to him and he still broke the rules.
Rules are rules, and they apply for all 72 holes of the tournament and beyond. It would have been easy to let the penalty slide due to the circumstances and the reality that Johnson’s mistake had no effect on his shot, but the rule states he wasn’t allowed to do so, and as wacky as rules in golf can be, Johnson had to comply with it.
It’s a sad finish for Johnson, who had a chance to defeat Kaymer and Watson in the playoff for his first major, but the fact of the matter is he did something illegal on the course, and was rightfully penalized. It’s a sad outcome, but not an unfair one.
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The point of contention is not whether grounding your club in a bunker is a two shot penalty. The controversy is whether the patch of sand DJ’s ball was on was a bunker. Was this sand extruded from a near by bunker? Where was the boundary of the so called bunker?
This was an opportunity for the PGA to use some common sense in application of the rules.
The sign in the locker room and in the official rules for the week clearly stated that ALL sandy areas would be played as hazards. Johnson and his caddie admit not reading them very carefully (as all golfers and their caddies do) but it was clearly marked. There’s no gray area.