USGA CEO Admits They Made A 'Big Bogey' On Dustin Johnson Penalty
On Sunday the usual drama surrounding the final round of the U.S. Open was heightened by an unusual rules debacle that the United States Golf Association (USGA), the tournament's governing body, badly botched.
In case you missed it, Dustin Johnson, the tournament's eventual winner, had his ball move on the green on the fifth hole during the final round but was absolved of any wrongdoing by the USGA official on site.
However, the USGA's officials decided to revisit the ruling and notified Johnson on the 12th tee, in the middle of the biggest round of his life, that he may in fact lose a stroke after all.
Now, the USGA's executive director and CEO, Mike Davis, has admitted as much and told reporters that the organization would like a "mulligan" over the penalty that was assessed to Johnson.
Here's what Davis had to say about the ruling, courtesy of GolfChannel.com:
"When you look back at the whole issue, you can break it down into two parts. It's a rules of golf issue, of trying to make sure that you apply the rules correctly the way they're written. And we do believe we did that," Davis said. "But there's another part of it in terms of the conduct of the championship itself, and that's where we'd really like a mulligan because clearly we made a big bogey."
Davis said that he wishes the officials had just told Johnson that he was being issued a penalty on that 12th tee instead of allowing the speculation surrounding the penalty to run rampant, which peeved some of the golf world's finest players to say the very least.
Either way, the penalty didn't affect the outcome and Dustin Johnson is a U.S. Open champion.
Now, hopefully, the USGA will learn from their mistake so it doesn't cost someone a chance at winning a major tournament.
Bryan Altman is, for some reason, an unabashed fan of the Rangers, Jets and Mets. If he absolutely had to pick a basketball team it would be the Knicks, but he'd gladly trade them for just one championship for any of his other three teams.
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