Officially Too Far

This year poor officiating and refereeing have cast a major shadow on many events. Jim Joyce infamously denied Armandos Galarraga a perfect game with his incorrect call in the 9th inning. Koman Coulibaly's call took away what would have been the game-winning goal in the USA's World Cup match against Slovenia. Most recently, umpire Bob Davidson made a questionable call on a hard hit ball that would have won a game for the Marlins, one which they ended up losing in extra innings. But this Sunday takes the cake without a doubt when the PGA took away Dustin Johnson's opportunity to win his first major at the PGA Championship. To recap, on the 72nd hole of the tournament, Johnson had a one stroke lead over Bubba Watson and (eventual champion) Martin Kaymer. Johnson hit his tee shot way right into the crowd into a seeming waste area trampled on by the thousands of fans over the course of the week. He hit his second shot left of the green, laid up, missed a chance to win, but forced a playoff... Or did he? Turns out the area was a "bunker" and since he grounded his club (or in layman's terms, his club touched the ground prior to hitting the ball) it was a two-stroke penalty. That means Johnson finished at -9, or two strokes off the lead, denied a chance to go to the playoff. While it must be admitted that the rules regarding bunkers at the uniquely-built Whistling Straits was made very clear, it still doesn't take away from the fact that the rules are ill-conceived.

Theoretically the Tour officials did the right thing and made the right call. According to the rules:

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 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.

Technically Johnson was in a bunker, and therefore he received a correct two-stroke penalty. That is not what I have a problem with. No, what I have a slight against is the fact that the Tour would be dumb enough to keep the course's rules and call a small waste area a bunker. During normal times, the rule makes sense, because there aren't thousands of people walking around the course. But during a PGA Tour event, officials should have stepped in and changed it so that it is merely a waste area. To have people walking in and standing on designated bunkers is beyond comprehension. Should Johnson have known the rules, seeing as how he was handed a rules sheet prior to the start of the tournament? Probably. Yet players get these sheets every week, and all of them probably say the same things. I'd put money on it that if you asked every player if they knew about the rule -- all 155 of them -- only a select few would have been aware that what Johnson was hitting from was considered a bunker. Frankly, you don't have bystanders standing in hazard areas. On the 72nd hole of a major that I'm a par away from winning, if I hit my tee shot there the last thing that would be on my mind is whether or not I'm on some ridiculously marked bunker with a flat area that has no lip or other transition from sand to grass that every known bunker in the world has. In the five minute span between the tee shot and the second shot, not one person from CBS mentioned the idea that it could have been a bunker. No fan probably would have guessed. Johnson's partner, Nick Watney, did not know. Why would Johnson or his caddy worry about such a thing, when the mere idea that fans would be standing in a bunker the size of a bed? Call me crazy but I think they were more worried about which club Johnson would hit and where it would go. Silly them, they probably thought the bunkers would look something like this instead of this! At a major tournament, and at any professional golf tournament for that matter, let the bunkers be bunkers, waste areas be waste areas, and for goodness sakes, if fans are allowed to walk and stand on it, it is NOT by any means a bunker.

However, the PGA Tour did decide that the area was a bunker, which brings me to my next point. How many other players that week hit their balls onto so-called "bunkers" with no penalty? John Daly wrote on his Twitter page: "So that means the sandy cart paths that I saw other players hit off of are also considered bunkers?!" He brings up a valid point. By the course's rules, a ton of players probably unknowingly hit their balls into bunkers and grounded their clubs. Yet how many of them were penalized for the apparent infraction? Probably not too many, that's for sure. If it was, say, Derek Lamely, who finished +5 and failed to make the cut, who had a similar shot on Thursday, would the officials have caught it? It just so happened that Johnson did it on the last hole when he had the lead, so his shot came under a lot more scrutiny by rules officials. And in this case that extra scrutiny cost a young man a shot at a major championship.

Bottom line is that while in the rule books the Tour made the right call (I guess), they should not have even put themselves into that situation, because they will undoubtedly be receiving some criticism for this... at least they are here at rjoycesports.blogspot.com. It's another case where the little, needless, nit-picky crap gets in the way of what's more important: the tension of what was quickly becoming a great Sunday. In a golf world where Tiger, Tiger's clubs, Tiger's golf balls, and Phil Mickelson make up people's interest, the sport needs an intense Sunday battle between a few young guns. Dustin Johnson is a solid player (he made the Ryder Cup, is ranked 24th in the world, and at 26 has the potential to have a good career), and someone that could potentially spike golf fans' interests. Taking away from a Sunday battle between him and two other players with little prior success (Watson and the 25-year old Kaymer) because of a technicality with the rules is not something the sport needs. If they never looked at it, no one would have questioned whether any violation occurred.

It's time that officials go back to what they were originally created to do: keep order in games. They are supposed to be a part of the game. They are not supposed to be a difference maker in them.