Unreal Finish to PGA Championship

[msdw24]

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Just an unreal finish to this years PGA Championship. Dustin Johnson got ROBBED on the last hole. He hits his drive into the crowd, there are THOUSANDS of people standing around his ball, he gets to and his ball appears to be on a bare patch of sand. He touches the ground once, asks someone to move their shadow over his ball, cause the sunlight was bothering him, grounds his club again then hits his shot.

He makes bogey after hitting a great pitch shot and missing the putt. At this point it looks like a three way playoff......CEPT a the PGA calls a two shot penalty for grounding his club in a hazard. DJ get's dropped to 9 under and misses out on the playoff.

With the thousands of people standing IN, and AROUND the bunkers, it wasn't clear he was even IN a bunker at all. It looked like a bare patch of sand in the trampled grass. I know there was a local rules saying NO waste areas, BUT it wasn't clear he was even in a bunker at all.

A lot of the other players are siding with DJ. Pretty poor decision to enforce the rule, considering it wasn't clear he was in a bunker.
Player reaction

 

[overmaars]

When in doubt, don't ground your club. Never ground your club in anything that remotely resembles a hazard, marked or unmarked, sand or no sand. I'm really shocked that a professional did this; especially considering he was in contention on the last hole in the final round of a major.

I was pulling for Bubba anyway.

 

[HornHuskerDad]

Tough ruling, no doubt. But he always had the option of calling an official over to get a ruling before he made the shot.

It was nonetheless an exciting tournament with a cliffhanger finish. It's also nice to see the next wave of youngsters coming along to compete with the older, more experienced guys. Note that the big names - Tiger, Phil, Ernie, to name a few - were nowhere near the final pairings and we still saw an interesting finish to the tournament.

HHD

 

[l00p]

The officials of that course stressed the need to know the "local" rules. Some pro golfers were interviewed on the radio last night and they all said it is a big deal and that every single pro golfer knows this. The course officials hammered home the bunkers, what makes a bunker and that every single thing intended as a bunker would be counted as such. He even admits to not reading the rules.

He robbed himself. That said I truly hope that he wins a major to get things straight in his head. Meltdown, rob yourself, what next?

 

[TexasGolf]

I've never seen the gallery standing in bunkers

Not a fan of Pete Dye designs.

 

[msdw24]

I think the PGA needs to revisit this local rule for the 2015 Championship and the Ryder Cup in 2020. Make everything outside of the ropes a waste area and the problem is solved.

The guy knows the rules, it was just very difficult to tell where the bunker started/ended becuase of all the people trampling through it.

Very tuff break indeed. At least he made the Ryder Cup team.

 

[ViperHorn]

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[msdw24]

How about the Ryder cup on the west coast like Pebble Beach or Torrey Pines. That would be fun.