Two
months ago, Dustin Johnson took a three-shot lead into the last round of
the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and shot a closing 82.
At
Whistling Straits on Sunday, the 26-year-old South Carolina native stood
over a six-foot par putt on the 72nd hole of the 92nd PGA Championship
that would have given him his first major title. He didn't hit it quite
hard enough, and the ball slid off to the right of the cup at the very
end. That should still have left him in a three-way, three-hole playoff with Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer. Instead, it became a Roberto De Vicenzo moment. In 1968, he signed for an incorrect scorecard at the Masters, which prevented him from being in a two-man playoff with Bob Goalby. "What a stupid I am," he infamously proclaimed.
Now, fair or not, Johnson knows the feeling. He was given a two-stroke penalty for grinding his putter into a bunker that clearly didn't look like one and rather than participate in a playoff, he tied for fifth.
"I don't know if I can describe it," Johnson said in the locker room. "It never did cross my mind that I was in a sand trap. I guess it's very unfortunate. The only worse thing that could have happened is if I made that putt on the last hole."
There are way over 1,000 sand traps on the Whistling Straits course. None of them is designated as a waste area, which means you can't ground your club in any of them. Players were reminded of the rule this week with a locker-room notice. Before Johnson hit his second shot on that final hole, he did exactly that."I just thought I was on a piece of dirt, that the crowd had trampled down," he said. "I looked at it a lot. It never once crossed my mind that I was in a bunker."
One bit of consolation: Johnson did qualify for the Ryder Cup team, along with runner-up Bubba Watson.