Dustin Johnson's blunder latest in long line of fairway fiascos
Dustin Johnson's mistake at the PGA Championship on Sunday, when the American grounded a club in what turned out to be a bunker, cost him a play-off place alongside Bubba Watson and eventual winner Martin Kaymer.
Following Johnson's earlier collapse at this year's US Open, where the 26-year-old led going into the final day only to shoot a final round of 82, it's been a tough year for the three-time PGA Tour winner. There's little we can say to cheer him up regarding that dreary denouement at Pebble Beach, but maybe Johnson can take some slight comfort from the fact that he is only the latest player to fall foul of golf's arcane and occasionally asinine rulings.
Only a few weeks ago, England's Robert Rock found himself disqualified from the Irish Open, having committed the trifling error of signing an incorrect scorecard. The ruling in this case seemed especially harsh, Rock finding himself turfed out at the end of the first round when he was within a stroke of the leader, because he'd failed to notice that his playing partner had mixed up Rock's scores on the 14th and 15th holes, writing four and three when it should have been the other way round.
Should a player be so cruelly punished for such an innocuous mistake? Apologists will say it's the player's responsibility to know the rules of golf, of course, but certainly some of the more pernickety rules of the game could surely be reformed without impacting the enjoyment of the sport, for spectator or participant. We're sure Michelle Wie would agree, even if the American's failure to follow the rules doesn't always elicit much sympathy.
In her short time as a professional on the LPGA, Wie has already fallen foul of golf's edicts on more than one occasion. Wie's first significant rules-based rumpus came at her very first professional tournament, after the then 16-year-old had hit her ball into a bush at the 2005 Samsung World Championships.
Wie subsequently made a drop from the bush and took a one-stroke penalty, continuing her round. However, watching journalist Michael Bamberger believed Wie's drop was closer to the hole than the original lie would have been, an error that should have resulted in a two-stroke penalty.
Bamberger made his concerns known to officials, who on consideration, agreed with Bamberger's concerns - and because Wie didn't acknowledge the penalty at the time, she found herself disqualified from the tournament. After Wie was booted out, her father actually congratulated Bamberger (sincerely, we think) on his vigilance, though whether Wie herself was so grateful for the hack's hands-on approach seems unlikely.
If there was some suggestion that Wie's first mistake was carried out to gain an advantage (something Wie fiercely denies), her next error was a straight-up c**k-up. At the end of the third round of the 2008 State Farm Classic, Wie sat just one stroke off the lead - and then an official brought the news that because she had failed to sign her second round scorecard, the Hawaiian would have to be disqualified from the tournament.
Rock and Wie clearly missed out on meaningful tournaments, but their misfortunes pale into significance next to Ian Woosnam's. At the 2001 Open, the Welshman was given a two-shot penalty on the final day when he was in a position to overhaul leader David Duval, his error chiefly being to rely on a careless caddy. In the middle of the round, Woosnam's bagman, Miles Byrne, spoke up to let his master know he was carrying two drivers in his bag, adding up to 15 clubs; the rules of golf limit players to just 14.
Incidentally, Woosnam forgave his caddie the error - only to sack him two weeks later when Byrne failed to make it to tee time at another tournament, reportedly after too many sherberts the night before.
The British major saw a still more ridiculous rule infringement a couple of years later; Mark Roe and Jesper Parnevik were both disqualified from the 2003 Open after failing to exchange scorecards at the end of their round. Parnevik's response to the ruling, which comes straight from the R&A and thus pertains only to the Open, was admirably succinct. "This is the dumbest rule I have ever heard of," was the Swede's measured response.
All the above players were in decent positions to contend for a tournament, but Bobby Jones would have won the 1925 US Open if not for his mistake - making it all the more stunning that the American called the error on himself. Though no-one else saw Jones inadvertently nudging his ball while preparing for a shot, the 13-time major winner was insistent he'd made an error, meaning a play-off with Willie McFarlane was the order of the day - which Jones then lost.
At least Jones had ample consolation - he'd already won the major two years before, and would go on to win it on a further three occasions. Argentina's Roberto De Vicenzo (pictured above) was also a major winner, albeit only once at the 1967 Open, but he could also have won the Masters in 1968 were it not for another regrettable, ridiculous error at Augusta.
Having finished the final round tied for the lead, De Vicenzo realised he had recorded a bogey on his scorecard for the 17th, despite parring the hole. The Rules of Golf, seemingly devised by Beelzebub himself, say that if a player signs for a higher score than the one he actually produced, the recorded score stands - and so De Vicenzo missed out on a play-off, gifting the victory to Bob Goalby (Like Rock's earlier example, the score, incidentally, had been recorded by De Vicenzo's playing partner Tommy Aaron).
De Vicenzo probably takes little solace in the fact that his reaction has gone down in golfing history, but it would be remiss of us not to include it here. "What a stupid I am!" commented the Argentinian. We'd say you were more an unfortunate than a stupid, Roberto, but certainly your version is more poetic.
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