Winner: Dustin Johnson
Around the wider world of golf: Sei Young Kim won the Meijer LPGA Classic on the LPGA; Jackie Stoelting won the Four Winds Invitational on the Symetra Tour; Nanna Koerstz Madsen won the Tipsport Golf Masters on the LET; Scott Hend won the Queen’s Cup on the Asian Tour; James Driscoll won the Nashville Golf Open on the Web.com Tour; Scott Gregory won The 121st Amateur Championship; and Jiyai Shin three-peated at the Nichirei Ladies on the JLPGA (bangkokbobby has details).
And although it wasn't golfing, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers became the primary group ever to come back lower back from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Playoffs. They broke a 52-year win drought for the city; the closing crew to win were the Cleveland Browns, their NFL crew, manner lower back in 1964. Congrats, all you Clevelanites!
When I picked DJ to win last week, I did not assume it to move down this manner. Not with every other policies controversy. But perhaps this is the pleasant manner it may have happened, since it just proved how tough Dustin Johnson has turn out to be as a participant.
DJ's problems triumphing his first important were nicely-documented, possibly the maximum well-known being the club he grounded in a bunker on the 2010 PGA Championship -- a bunker that maximum players didn't even suppose have to had been a bunker. The penalty knocked him out of a playoff. But you could argue he must have acknowledged better that point -- in the end, the neighborhood rules sheet (which DJ admitted he did not look at) said EVERY sandy location at the route turned into a bunker.
But this one... When DJ known as for a ruling at the 5th inexperienced after his ball moved, he turned into informed there was no penalty and to play on. (If he have been deemed to move the ball, he would have had to replace it.) Then, at the twelfth tee, USGA officers advised him the incident become below review, however could not inform him if it became a policies infraction or no longer. He -- and the relaxation of the sphere -- finished the match without even understanding what score changed into main the tournament.
Fortunately for DJ, he stepped as much as the plate and made one of the most effective birdies published at the 18th hollow all day. He drilled a pressure, tucked his second an insignificant three toes from the hole and tired the putt. Even with the penalty he ultimately acquired, he nonetheless gained by way of three photographs.
DJ got the monkey off his back -- and joked about doing so with the media -- but the USGA probably won't be so lucky. The player response on social media was quick and merciless, uniformly condemning the USGA for a "ridiculous" (McIlroy) decision that was "a joke" (Spieth). According to Tim Rosaforte on GC's Live from... afterward, even the legends of the game blasted them. Like this quote from the ESPN article that I took the photo above from:
Jack Nicklaus, who turned into on site as an honorary chairman of the U.S. Open, congratulated Johnson as he walked off the green, telling ESPN.Com later that "I told [him] what you did with all that crap that they threw at you became quite suitable."I don't think this is going to go away. After all, when you are the arbiter of rules and you not only reverse a decision mid-round but refuse to give a definitive selection in any respect, particularly while it way no one is aware of what the lead is, you cause people to question your right to be an authority at all!
For DJ, however, this is all water below the bridge. (Or is it balls moving at the inexperienced?) At any fee, DJ receives his first fundamental championship and ends an awful lot of the debate over his capacity to shut the large ones. And it additionally gives him a first-rate Limerick Summary to add to his walking total of ordinary ones.
Was he leading by using or with the aid of one?
DJ said, “Either way, this gets done!
Let the USGA
Try to mess up my day?
Soon they’ll KNOW I’ve got this major won!” The photo came from this page at espn.com.
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