Dustin Johnson
Adams In FAST Lane ( 5)
A Trap Not Of
His Own Making
SHEBOYGAN, WISCONSIN | In the end, the
two-man playoff that determined the winner
of the PGA Championship on Sunday at Whis-
tling Straits was an anticlimax. Meanwhile,
somewhere in Argentina, Roberto De Vicenzo
is gnawing on his knuckles.
American Dustin Johnson would have
been the third man in the three-hole playoff
if he hadn’t grounded his club in what he
didn’t realize was a bunker on the 72nd
hole. The resulting two-shot penalty led
to a triple-bogey and shoved him uncer-
emoniously into a tie for fifth.
The second-biggest loser, behind
Johnson, was the first-biggest winner. That
would be Martin Kaymer, the gifted young
German who ground out his first major, in
the overtime, against Florida's long-hitting
Bubba Watson.
Kaymer is the champion. But Johnson
is the story.
De Vicenzo knows how this works. So
does Bob Goalby. Goalby was awarded the
1968 Masters when De Vicenzo signed an
incorrect scorecard. More than 40 years
later De Vicenzo is the guy everybody still
talks and writes about.
Not much terribly fair about any of this.
And that’s where golf imitates life.
The PGA of America, which runs this
championship, never wanted it to end this
way, either. But its officials had no choice
but to follow and properly apply the rules.
So let the hue and cry begin. Purists hate
this sort of controversy. Talk radio loves it.
And it will probably take the people close
to Dustin Johnson a long time to convince
him that golf is just a game.
