USGA expresses regret over handling of Dustin Johnson’s penalty

In 2010, Johnson missed out on a place in a playoff at the U.S. PGA Championship as a result of a penalty. He now is everyone’s favorite pairing for Sunday at Royal Troon unless the tee time is anywhere near the breakfast hour.

“But I led by four shots in the tournament going into the final round. That’s what the USGA believes in, and that’s what most of the players all believe in”, he said. “They could possibly penalize him, but if you’re going to do that, then they should have penalized him and let him get on with the job”.

The USGA said it would wait until after the final round to decide. After studying the video and consulting with Thomas Pagel, USGA senior director of Rules of Golf and Amateur Status, the two met Johnson on the 12th tee, where Johnson arrived with a one-stroke lead.

“This created unnecessary ambiguity for Dustin and the other players, as well as spectators on-site, and those watching and listening on television and digital channels”.

“We made a big bogey”, Davis said. The 31-year-old came from four behind heading into the final round and kept errors to a minimum as he survived the toughest test in golf to triumph by three shots.

Dustin also joined Bob Jones (1923, ’26, ’29), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Payne Stewart (1999) and Tiger Woods (2008) as US Open champions who were runners-up the previous year.

And there should be no debate on the penalty.

On Monday, the USGA released a statement. He saw it too and we both agreed that I didn’t cause the ball to move.

To summarize for those that don’t get into the weeds, Johnson approached the ball to putt, and the ball moved ever so slightly.

“It’s virtually impossible to make a hard enough swing next to the ball to make the ball oscillate or move”. “I think he’s probably one of the later bloomers, you might say”.

That was the mistake, and the USGA owned up to it.

“He accepted the penalty and included it on his scorecard”, said the USGA’s Jeff Hall, “and that was the end of the conversation”.

“That really gets down to putting in essence the championship on the final day nearly in limbo to where the players, and in this case Dustin, didn’t know where he stood in terms of a score”, he added. “It’s not easy to get yourself in a position I got myself in today”, said Lowry, who closed with a six-over 76 to finish tied for second, three strokes behind victor Dustin Johnson. The player himself is known as being one of the less expansive in terms of communication skills, but his relief at overturning a four-stroke deficit to win by three was palpable.

For Lowry it was a humbling experience on what was the first time the player from County Offaly in central Ireland had led a major tournament after 54 holes.

Johnson would make sure it didn’t matter, though the USGA did indeed penalize him.

Seven U.S. Presidents have been members of Congressional Country Club, and former club members include such American icons as Charlie Chaplin, Vince Lombardi and William Randolph Hearst. But it seems that in trying to fix a flawed rule (players were drawing penalties for wind-blown balls moving just because they had grounded their club), the governing body created other potential problems that nearly became a living nightmare at Oakmont.