One Thing About Golf, It's Fair
Okay, so I stole the idea for the title of this column from Harvey Dent in Dark Knight. But it applies a day after the Dustin Johnson travesty. And no matter how you look at it, it was just that a travesty. Whether you blame Johnson, his caddy, the person making the ruling, Pete Dye, or the rules official walking alongside Johnson's group, it still lands you at the same place. Dustin Johnson deserved to be in that playoff. Grounding his club in the "bunker" gave him zero advantage as evidence by the fact that he pulled the shot about 50 yards left of where he was aiming. But a day after yelling at the television and booing as if I was one of the fans in the grandstands on 18 at Whistling Straits, I've now had a chance to breathe.
First things first, that wasn't a bunker. I don't care what Pete Dye wanted it to be. There was a plastic cup in it. Not a rake. Pete Dye . . . I hate playing his courses. There is no flat ground. There are a billion bunkers. It's not golf. It's a series of lucky and unlucky bounces. Witness Steve Elkington's perfect iron shot on 17 taking a horrendous bounce into the cliff side bunker.
However, all that said, you're getting paid hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to play golf. If you're not reading the local rules then you'd better make sure your caddy is. I'm not going to pretend that I read the local rules at every course I play, but I also don't profess to be a pro golfer.
Moving on to the more pressing issues at hand, let's examine the nuts and bolts of what really happened. As the commentator on the Golf Channel said, if Dustin Johnson wasn't in the final few groups on a Sunday, there is a zero percent chance that the penalty gets called. There wouldn't have been uber-analysis of his every shot and he wouldn't have had a rules official with him. If he was playing on a Friday he would have grounded his club, not known it was a bunker, and gone on about his round. I'm sure other players did the same thing. Wait, no, that dirt spot was about 50 yards right of the fairway, so I'll bet he was the only one in it besides the fans, but you get what I'm saying. Dustin Johnson had a microscope on him, be it a fan's microscope or a rules official's. At first thought, I figured that the rules official wasn't allowed to say anything regarding the rule infraction as it was about to happen. I figured that it would be advice against the rules and therefore a 2 stroke penalty. But after hearing Andy North talk about it, it turns out that the rules official shadowing the final pairing could have said, "careful Dustin, that dirt patch is actually a bunker." But he didn't. Why? It wouldn't have been an unfair advantage to get that advice as nobody else would have been subject to the rules violation if he had unknowingly committed it. It wouldn't have violated a rule. So why didn't the official say anything as it was happening? Or even right after? What if Dustin had grounded his club a few times. 2 strokes per infraction. Do the math. And what if that putt on 18 had fallen? What was this rules official's M.O.? He said he felt horribly about it. Not horribly enough to stop it though. Schmuck. There was a big part of me that wanted Dustin Johnson to land a right cross when that guy was being interviewed.
And finally we get to Mr. Johnson. Again, in golf the buck stops with the player. Yes, the caddy should have been there to do something, but as a golfer, it's on you. And that may be my favorite part of golf. Don't get me wrong. I love team sports. I love the cameraderie, the strategy, and the fan involvement. But you will never find a sport that combines the mental game with the physical so beautifully and in which there is nobody to blame but yourself. And I was more than pleased to see Dustin Johnson address the situation that way. Golf is a game where a guy misses getting his PGA Tour card by a stroke at Q-School because he calls a 2-stroke penalty on himself. That call that nobody would have caught was the difference between eking along and a living. Golf is a sport where you shake hands, embrace history, and first and foremost, respect the game you are playing and the rules that comprise it. Respect is the name of the game in golf. It's one of the first places where I learned about etiquette, manners, and cheating. Yes, I learned at the dinner table with my family as well, but that wasn't anywhere near as fun as golf. I get so upset watching professional athletes in other sports further the horrific scene that is this "Me First Generation" as I call it. Type "PGA Cheating" into Google and you'll get some videogame codes for the Tiger Woods game, some false accusations from Scott McCarron, the Tiger/Elin drama, and that's about it. When's the last time a golfer cheated? The last guy I remember cheating was Tom Weiskopf. He was playing in the U.S. Senior Open at Riviera C.C. several years back. He was several strokes away from being in the hunt but he was beyond perturbed at what he deemed an unfair layout. He scored an 8 on the last hole but wrote down a 12 so that he wouldn't have to play the weekend and could DQ himself rather than withdrawing and going un-noticed. For every such incident there are a million Dustin Johnsons. Guys who play the game with class. Guys who take their beatings, be they deserved or otherwise. Golf isn't a sport where stars are given better treatment on the course strictly because they're stars. If Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson had grounded his club, the same rule would have applied. You can count on that. So while Dustin Johnson may be upset with the infamous "bunker" and the ruling, and even more upset with the rules official, he knows that he represents a game that puts respect and class first. Golf may be unforgiving, but it at least gives a level playing field. I'll take fair every day of the week. Maybe we should have PGA Tour Players read the Constitution, tell them they have to uphold it, and then put them in Congress and on the Supreme Court. Sorry, I just got excited.
I feel for you Dustin Johnson, and I was angry at the time you were robbed. But I'm happy you handled the situation the way you did. You reminded me and a lot of other people what's important in life. I tip my cap to you.
First things first, that wasn't a bunker. I don't care what Pete Dye wanted it to be. There was a plastic cup in it. Not a rake. Pete Dye . . . I hate playing his courses. There is no flat ground. There are a billion bunkers. It's not golf. It's a series of lucky and unlucky bounces. Witness Steve Elkington's perfect iron shot on 17 taking a horrendous bounce into the cliff side bunker.
However, all that said, you're getting paid hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to play golf. If you're not reading the local rules then you'd better make sure your caddy is. I'm not going to pretend that I read the local rules at every course I play, but I also don't profess to be a pro golfer.
Moving on to the more pressing issues at hand, let's examine the nuts and bolts of what really happened. As the commentator on the Golf Channel said, if Dustin Johnson wasn't in the final few groups on a Sunday, there is a zero percent chance that the penalty gets called. There wouldn't have been uber-analysis of his every shot and he wouldn't have had a rules official with him. If he was playing on a Friday he would have grounded his club, not known it was a bunker, and gone on about his round. I'm sure other players did the same thing. Wait, no, that dirt spot was about 50 yards right of the fairway, so I'll bet he was the only one in it besides the fans, but you get what I'm saying. Dustin Johnson had a microscope on him, be it a fan's microscope or a rules official's. At first thought, I figured that the rules official wasn't allowed to say anything regarding the rule infraction as it was about to happen. I figured that it would be advice against the rules and therefore a 2 stroke penalty. But after hearing Andy North talk about it, it turns out that the rules official shadowing the final pairing could have said, "careful Dustin, that dirt patch is actually a bunker." But he didn't. Why? It wouldn't have been an unfair advantage to get that advice as nobody else would have been subject to the rules violation if he had unknowingly committed it. It wouldn't have violated a rule. So why didn't the official say anything as it was happening? Or even right after? What if Dustin had grounded his club a few times. 2 strokes per infraction. Do the math. And what if that putt on 18 had fallen? What was this rules official's M.O.? He said he felt horribly about it. Not horribly enough to stop it though. Schmuck. There was a big part of me that wanted Dustin Johnson to land a right cross when that guy was being interviewed.
And finally we get to Mr. Johnson. Again, in golf the buck stops with the player. Yes, the caddy should have been there to do something, but as a golfer, it's on you. And that may be my favorite part of golf. Don't get me wrong. I love team sports. I love the cameraderie, the strategy, and the fan involvement. But you will never find a sport that combines the mental game with the physical so beautifully and in which there is nobody to blame but yourself. And I was more than pleased to see Dustin Johnson address the situation that way. Golf is a game where a guy misses getting his PGA Tour card by a stroke at Q-School because he calls a 2-stroke penalty on himself. That call that nobody would have caught was the difference between eking along and a living. Golf is a sport where you shake hands, embrace history, and first and foremost, respect the game you are playing and the rules that comprise it. Respect is the name of the game in golf. It's one of the first places where I learned about etiquette, manners, and cheating. Yes, I learned at the dinner table with my family as well, but that wasn't anywhere near as fun as golf. I get so upset watching professional athletes in other sports further the horrific scene that is this "Me First Generation" as I call it. Type "PGA Cheating" into Google and you'll get some videogame codes for the Tiger Woods game, some false accusations from Scott McCarron, the Tiger/Elin drama, and that's about it. When's the last time a golfer cheated? The last guy I remember cheating was Tom Weiskopf. He was playing in the U.S. Senior Open at Riviera C.C. several years back. He was several strokes away from being in the hunt but he was beyond perturbed at what he deemed an unfair layout. He scored an 8 on the last hole but wrote down a 12 so that he wouldn't have to play the weekend and could DQ himself rather than withdrawing and going un-noticed. For every such incident there are a million Dustin Johnsons. Guys who play the game with class. Guys who take their beatings, be they deserved or otherwise. Golf isn't a sport where stars are given better treatment on the course strictly because they're stars. If Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson had grounded his club, the same rule would have applied. You can count on that. So while Dustin Johnson may be upset with the infamous "bunker" and the ruling, and even more upset with the rules official, he knows that he represents a game that puts respect and class first. Golf may be unforgiving, but it at least gives a level playing field. I'll take fair every day of the week. Maybe we should have PGA Tour Players read the Constitution, tell them they have to uphold it, and then put them in Congress and on the Supreme Court. Sorry, I just got excited.
I feel for you Dustin Johnson, and I was angry at the time you were robbed. But I'm happy you handled the situation the way you did. You reminded me and a lot of other people what's important in life. I tip my cap to you.
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