Dustin Johnson and Intent**

One reason the Dustin Johnson penalty is not sitting well: he did not test the sand in the bunker. He did not intend to violate the rule. That said, he violated the rule. No question. But in a few well-known cases of late, rules officials have allowed intent to influence their decision to not penalize a player. Rory McIlroy kicking sand at the Masters and Kenny Perry mashing down rough behind his ball in Phoenix come to mind. (There is an old post with stellar comments well worth going back and reading for those interested in the intent debate, including one by Tom Kirkendall that will make you giggle at its prescience.)

While I understand the rule in question and the violation by Johnson, why isn't intent allowed to play a role here? After all, the only reason we know about this incident is because it happened on camera. The walking rules official did not see the violation happen and Johnson was not going to call a penalty on himself because he didn't realize he committed one. Had this happened Thursday off camera, no penalty would likely have been incurred. So since we have the addition of cameras, tape and viewers calling in, leading to penalties like this, shouldn't the rules also allow for that tape to take intent into account? It seems that precedent has already been set with the statements in the McIlroy and Perry episodes? No?

Rules gurus, please set me straight!

Update on 2010-08-18 03:17 by Geoff

**There's a nice response from John Vander Borght on his blog to the intent question.

Flashback: Fans In Bunkers

While the below images show fans in bunkers during tournament play, none were as on top of players and masking bunker boundaries as what happened with Dustin Johnson.

From Rob Matre, Tiger in 2008 at Torrey Pines.

And from the old magazines, courtesy of the art department.

"just a small notice."

So much for Germans dancing in the streets over Martin Kaymer's PGA Championship win. Reader Lloyd emailed a friend in Germany and shared his exchange.

Your excellent young golfer Martin Kaymer won the final major of the golf year yesterday

Did anyone in Germany watch or notice?

He was very good BTW, but this is no surprise

L

And the reply:

:-) I did not hear anything about this :-)
but dirk read about it in the newspaper. just a small notice.
g

Bunkers In The Whistling Straits Yardage Book

Reader Mark noted that if Dustin Johnson looked at his yardage book he would have seen yardages. He asked if I could procure a copy of the 18th diagram. After a search, Mark himself came up with it and shares the work of  Stracka Line. Not much grey area here. Though in Johnson's defense, I never saw him look at the book. But there is also a missing gap in the CBS coverage where he purportedly was approached by the PGA's walking official, David Price.

"The point of the notice was to say that you wouldn't get a free drop."

I think we've all conceded that Dustin Johnson is at fault for this untimely PGA Championship mistake, but many elements clearly aren't sitting well based on the comments in earlier posts. (And by the way, so many great insights on both sides of the aisles, thanks for all of the thoughtful posts).

One of those posts comes from reader Ted Purdy, who responded on the Frank Hannigan thread about the wording of the PGA's notice, which was wheeled out as clear evidence that Johnson should have read it and therefore, he would not have made the mistake he made on 18. (Though if he didn't think it was a bunker, the notice is irrelevant as he is not going to ground his club in a bunker at any golf course.)

But as Ted notes, the supplementary local rule pertained to the lie and possible relief you would get in a bunker, not in actually determining which of the sandy pits at Whistling Straits was a hazard and what wasn't. Purdy writes:

The purpose of the local rule was not to say that all sandy areas constituted a hazard but to inform players that no relief would be granted to players for footprints, tire tracks or other "irregularities of surface" in a hazard. To say that it provided clear notice to all players that all sandy areas on the course would be considered hazards is misleading at best. The point of the notice was to say that you wouldn't get a free drop.

I disagree that the notice was created to define what would be considered a hazard, and the attempt by the PGA to use a notice worded as that one was to justify its decision to call the place where several hundreds of people were standing throughout the whole episode a bunker, is laughable.

Indeed, Purdy appears correct if you re-read the notice with that view in mind:

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.

Again, Johnson made an enormous mistake and could have avoided his fate by simply slowing things down (God bless him for being a fast player!), asking Price what his options were, and getting a reminder not to ground his club. But as Purdy notes, the notice wasn't as clear as some have suggested.

This is one more reason why I believe the ultimate loser in this affair will not be the PGA, Dustin Johnson or even Whistling Straits, but instead, a growing hostility toward the complicated, unwieldy Rules of Golf.

Every Gets Three Month Suspension For Misdemeanor

I wasn't joking when I said the mug shot was probably greater than the crime, but come on, three months for a little brush with Mary Jane? Alex Miceli reports on Matt Every's PGA Tour suspension for conduct unbecoming, and this:

The suspension will provide Every, who is 144th on the money list with $438,517, only one chance to retain his Tour card. Every will be eligible for the last event of the Fall Series, the the Nov. 11-14 Children’s Miracle Network Classic.

It's a good thing conduct unbecoming is not extended to players who violate the Rules of Golf! Especially two different ways on one hole!

Who Dustin Johnson Should Be Expecting Thank You Notes From...

1. Pete Dye - should thank DJ for creating a distraction that will have us forgetting about the worst goofiest finishing holes imaginable. The 17th has been a well known absurdity at 235 yards with extreme banks more suited for a 135 yard par-3, not something receiving mid-to-long irons. But the re-worked 18th was the real standout Sunday, with the new green not improving matters over last time and the re-imagined strategic options non-existent throughout the tournament. That, however, was also the fault of...

2. Kerry Haigh - The PGA's setup man didn't get Whistling Straits right. This is a course that has to be set up with a 20 mph wind in mind no matter the forecast, and the last two PGA's there have given the impression they were not thinking of the effects of wind. There is way too much dark green, U.S. Open-style rough in places that Dye intended as fairway, or worse, thick stuff harvested next to greens. It's all made more disappointing when you hear that they were out primping the stuff up. (On a faux links!?) There also did not appear to be enough varying of yardages and in the case of No. 18, an unfortunate use of a front left hole location likely not accessible with a wedge, much less 5-irons on up to hybrids as we saw Sunday.

When the best shot--according to Faldo and Nantz--is a 5-iron to 20 feet from Rory McIlroy, something is amiss (unless they are playing into a gale force wind, they were not). For all of the people who like to brand what the USGA's Mike Davis does as gimmicky, you can imagine what he might have tried: use the same hole location but move the tee up 75 yards to give the players a chance to use the new fairway and leave themselves with a flip wedge. Potential risk-reward and maybe even better television. This also would have taken those sandy pits along the right side of the fairway out of play, and we probably wouldn't be talking about crowd control and walking rules officials today. But thanks to Johnson's mistake, few noticed just how awful the hole played all week and especially Sunday. (No scoring average for Sunday is available on the website, I guess we'll have to wait for Golf World to hit the mailboxes?).

3. Tiger Woods - He missed the Ryder Cup team on points and now, according to a Tweet by Steve DiMeglio, may miss the playoffs. Unfathomable! And yet, no one is talking about it today.

Dear Dustin: Thanks, From Tiger, Kerry and Pete.

Flashback: "Let me say that I saw flesh-and-blood children digging up rocks and building sand castles in bunkers overlooking the eighth green."**

John Garrity, on Wednesday of PGA week, foreshadowing the inevitable questions about Whistling Straits's sandy hazards with two styles of maintenance, two types of preparation and most definitley two types of supervision.

The sand hazards at Whistling Straits are unlike those at any other major championship. Roped-off spectator paths lead you right into the sand, which is neatly raked on one side of the rope and churned up like a child's sandbox on the other. And before you challenge that last metaphor, let me say that I saw flesh-and-blood children digging up rocks and building sand castles in bunkers overlooking the eighth green.

Update on 2010-08-16 20:02 by Geoff

**Nice spot by reader Michael C. of a PGA posted Getty Image of kids playing in a Whistling Straits bunker. Adorable on so many levels. And screen captured here just in case it should magically disappear into cyberspace.

DJ Crime Scene Image

Brooks has posted a shot of the bunker post-final round and says Johnson had to know he was in a bunker. But I'm still back at, if David Feherty didn't recognize it as such, then the crowd clearly had masked what this was.