If you have dogs you understand that sometimes you could be walking in your backyard and step in an unexpected pile. I think this is a good comparison to what the USGA did Sunday at the US Open with Dustin Johnson. Not literally but the entire penalty soap opera was totally avoidable. Golf is a game of honor and if the player and his competitor say there was no movement the issue is over.
Unfortunately it just started with the USGA. Not only could they not make a decision they prolonged the decision process for hours. Unfair to Dustin and to all golf fans. This is when the USGA stepped into one big pile.
Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and every professional golfer took to social media to give the USGA a piece of their mind. Everybody had an opinion and that was that the USGA screwed up. Fortunately the USGA did admit they screwed up sort of. They didn’t say they interpreted the ruling wrong it was the timing. Gee surprise, surprise, surprise!
Moving forward. Dustin Johnson had an outstanding tournament and deserved to win. His win needs to be in the history books with no mention of the penalty fiasco just accolades to a great golf demonstration. The USGA needs to step back and get off their high roller attitude and start realizing what the normal fan of golf is all about. We’re talking handicap in the teens, averaging couple of rounds a month with the same foursome that has played together at the same course for years.
Golf is not an elitist game it’s a gentleman’s game built around comradery. As the years past the USGA needs to understand it’s the gentlemen and women around the world that make this sport great. Not the small group of egos called the USGA sitting in New Jersey.
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