PGA Championship – Golf Survives Nicely
I don’t care if Tiger or Phil weren’t in it on Sunday, the PGA Championship was exciting right up to the conclusion. It’s too soon to anoint new superstars of golf, but some of the young guns we saw Sunday are going to replace the World’s top ranked golfers before too long.
Forget the mistakes and blunders, Whistling Straits is a tough course especially with the wind blowing. If you watched you saw a lot of good golf and some miraculous recovery shots under a lot of pressure.
Some have taken exception with the way the tournament unfolded, even calling it tainted as Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal implied. I say golf survived very nicely and demonstrated why it’s the game it is. It’s one of the few sports where the rules are really the RULES and they don’t change by the player or circumstances.
When I first saw that they were going to penalize Dustin Johnson 2 shots for grounding his club in a bunker, I admit I was upset. Until, that is, the PGA official came on camera and explained that the local rules clearly state that all sandy areas at Whistling Straits are bunkers, even if they have people standing in them, footprints and tire tracks. The official went on to describe how they went to great pains to post this everywhere so that no player would be uniformed.
I can see how this would upset someone who’s not a golfer and typically follows sports like basketball where the rules have been so decimated and abused that no one really knows what they are anymore or how a given official on a given night and for a given player is going to interpret them. We golfers don’t have that problem. The rules are the same for you and me as they are for Tiger Woods. They can’t be bent, broken or selectively interpreted. And that is what makes Golf the game it is.
Players like Dustin Johnson are a credit to the game and represent what it stands for. He didn’t pout or duck reporters or threaten the officials. He took his punishment like a man and said he should have read the rules more carefully. He probably won’t make that mistake again. His caddy ought to do penance for not explaining the situation before his man even got near the ball.
This isn’t the first time that golf’s rules seemed cruel. But that’s the point, the game, like life, can seem cruel to those who don’t understand the rules. Golf is about the only sport or game that I know of where players are expected to call penalties on themselves.
Golf may be just a game, but like the First Tee ads claim, it’s also about core life values. Show me an honest golfer and I’ll show you a good human being.
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- Players Championship Update After Day 1
- Open Championship Online Shopping
- The U.S. Open Is The Peoples’ Championship
- Quail Hollow Championship Review
- PGA Promoting Golf As An Investment
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Comments
Your post got me to thinking about something I’ve never given much thought to. One thing that’s unique about golf, compared to other spectator sports, is the lack of bad calls. For example, lots of people feel Dustin Johnson got screwed on Sunday. However, very few, I believe, feel as if there was a mistake in the actual application/enforcement of the tournament rules… which, of course, Johnson should have read.
Jim Dauer
FullForesome.com
I hear what your saying about ‘interpretation’. As crazy as some of the rules are under some circumstances (like balls moving on the green after you’ve grounded your putter and taken your stance)they are relatively easy to apply as long as you know them. I found it interesting that seasoned pros like Nick Faldo and Ian Baker-Finch said they never grounded their clubs on hardpack or sand of any kind. The younger guys could probably use a seminar on this stuff. It would save them some heartache.
No question, the rule had to be applied. No question, it set playing by the rules back a mile at the recreational level. What the PGA failed to do was to keep spectators out of the “bunker” creating the confusion. While there is a need for extreme detail at the professional level, to cover all situations of play, there should be a much simpler and easier set of rules OFFERED at the recreational level. Promote the top ten (no mulligans, play it as it lies, no putts conceded outside of your foot etc.) Create a more clear common denominator to allow players to concentrate on hitting the ball better, not whether they grounded their club on a patch of whatever.
Good suggestions Bob! I’d like to see everyone putt out. The problem is there is always that distance and relevant circumstances that make it seem ridiculous – say a paced course and a 1 footer. But, maybe we should think through that. If it’s so easy that it’s a gimme, then how many seconds does it take to knock it in the hole. I know way too many golfers that give each other 3 foot breakers that are never gimmes, at least if you putt like most people. Then again, if you’re such a great putter, what’s the problem with making the shot you’re good at?
Talk about being screwed over by the PGA. I don’t know what kind of problems I would of brought up if that was me. Bravo to Dustin Johnson. Great tournament, and even more what a respectable man.