Been there, done that: PGA Blunders throughout history
Golf has often been described as one of the best games in the world, but with the stupidest rules ever invented. Dustin Johnson wasn’t the first PGA player victimized by these often bizarre rules, nor will he be the last. There have been several other golfers who have all had an unfortunate encounter with the rules that cost them a title.
Johnson’s bunker penalty at the PGA championship is the most recent rule blunder in golf, and has sparked many topics of discussions on what should have, could have, or will be done about these types of situations.
Johnson admits that, on the 18th hole on the Whistling Straits golf course, he grounded his club two times before taking his second shot. He knows that grounded in a bunker is a rule violation, but what he didn’t know was that his ball was situated in a sand bunker. At that late stage in the game, the penalty cost him a place in the play-off and fifth place finish over all.
He didn’t review the course layout; he didn’t ask the rules official if the pile of dirt he thought the ball was sitting on was actually a bunker. Had he done either of these things he would have been reminded that any sand on the course was considered a bunker, even unkempt, unraked and trampled on sand. So Johnson’s mistake cost him his first major.
Grounding your club in a bunker is a penalty for two reasons. First off, a player could be able to shift enough sand around the ball to improve his shot, and secondly, a player might be able to feel out the surface area to test it out, to see how much sand is under the ball, if its soft sand or hard sand or rocks.
In his defence the bunker was poorly kept; for days the public had trampled over the course and no ropes had been set up to distinguish to spectators or players that this was a bunker, so it shouldn’t have been played as one. Johnson was stupid to have violated the rules but Whistling Straits was stupid for making it.
Other such avoidable mistakes throughout history have occurred. In 1968 Roberto De Vicenzo had made birdie on the 17th hole at the Masters tournament. His playing partner Tommy Aaron however, inadvertently entered a four instead of a three on the scorecard. Neither checked to see if the correct score had been entered before signing it, and the rules stipulate that the higher score had to stand and be counted.
De Vicenzo would have tied for first had the simple mistake been avoided. He would have entered an 18-hole play-off with Bob Goalby, who won the Masters thanks to the scorecard error, instead of being remembered for his legendary mistake and remark afterwards, “What a stupid I am!”
In the LPGA, Michelle Wie got is known for getting into trouble with the rules. At the 2010 Kia Classic in California this past March her ball landed just inside the water hazard margin. Wie’s first shot chunked the ball out of the water about two feet, but it still landed inside the margin. Upon her second shot her club grazed the grass beside her, which was a violation of rule 13-4b, and received the same two stroke penalty as Johnson.
In 1987 at a Torrey Pines event, Craig Stadler had placed a towel down on the ground to prevent his pants from getting wet while playing shot in dewy grass on his knees. According to Rule 13-3.2 this is considered building a stance, a two-shot penalty. He was later disqualified because Stadler, unaware that he had violated a rule, had signed his score card with the incorrect score.
In 2005 Wie was disqualified from the Samsung World Championship for a rule violation after she took an incorrect drop, and again in 2006 was penalized at the British Open for making contact with a piece of moss during her backswing out of a greenside bunker. In 2008 Wie was disqualified from a tournament when she left the scoring area without signing her score card.
When people have been playing golf for as long as Wie and Johnson have, you would expect that they would be familiar with the rules of golf. Beside it being almost expected of them to know how to play, breaking the rules can be very costly. Johnson missed out on the $1 million winners share and Wie estimated she lost about $90,000 for her British Open blunder. This just goes to show you that as silly as some of these stipulations are, if you want to win you still have to play by the rules.
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