What defines a major championship? Inertia, mostly. We’re told there are four of them in golf: the Masters. U.S. Open, British Open and PGA, and that is that.
Dustin Johnson is better today than he was last week because he is now a major winner. When he does it again, he’ll be as good as Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson and half as good as Rory McIlroy.
But what is the recourse when a major championship misbehaves, when it attacks the game and its players like a rogue antibody?
Can it lose its major championship ID and be escorted to the parking lot by security from Human Resources?
Is it time to fire the U.S. Open?
The U.S. Golf Association is proud of the Open and how it tortures the game’s artists. It’s a weird attitude, shared by none of the other majors. When combined with a total eclipse of common sense, the Open loses its right to be called a significant sporting event.
That happened Sunday at Oakmont, and without Dustin Johnson’s robotic refusal to disappear, it would have been far worse.
As you know, Johnson’s ball moved on the fifth green as he played with Lee Westwood. Johnson explained he had not “soled” the club behind the ball and both Westwood and the USGA referee accepted that.
But on the 12th tee, the USGA’s Jeff Hall told Johnson that he would have to visit the video room after his round to see if he should be penalized. Johnson had a two-stroke lead at the time with seven formidable holes left. Or was he up one? Or if he walked off the 72nd hole tied, would the fate of the Open be determined by backroom replay?
Via Twitter and without risk of followup questions, the world’s best players reacted. McIlroy called it “amateur hour.” Spieth called it “a joke.” Jack Nicklaus was there and said he couldn’t believe Johnson prevailed with “all this crap in his head.”
But there was no chance Johnson would over-think it, He wasn’t looking at scoreboards anyway. Everyone else crumbled. Johnson won by four strokes. Or three, after the USGA took its stroke of flesh.
The USGA determined Johnson caused the ball to move backward as he grounded the putter beside the ball. It cited a “preponderance of evidence,” none of it visible.
But forget all that.
How do you tell a player that something might or might not happen? Why put an extra cloud over his head? If Johnson’s future father-in-law, Wayne Gretzky, had been told that the Kings’ 2-1 lead would be reviewed after the game, there might have been a Forum riot. As it was, the crowd booed the USGA at the ceremony.
The USGA could have told Johnson nothing until he arrived at the clubhouse or it could have notified him of the penalty on the 12th tee. It came up with its own unique choice, as it often does.
Sometimes the USGA gets it right, like in 2008 (Torrey Pines) and 2013 (Merion). Sometimes it drops the cake. Last year it turned Chambers Bay into a brown pinball machine with sandpaper greens and kept changing par 4s to 5s without respecting a hole’s original design. “Dumbest hole ever,” Spieth called the 18th.
In 2004 it refused to water the seventh green at Shinnecock Hills until it became unplayable. In 1998 it put a pin on a skiing mogul at Olympic and turned 3-foot birdie putts into 25-foot par putts.
In 2002 it forced a 280-yard carry over rough at Bethpage Black, to which Tom Watson commented, “You can’t penalize straight.”
You always hear the USGA talk about “defending the course.” From what? Talent? Instead of turning its greens into curling sheets, instead of growing ligament-endangering rough, just let these great old courses stand for themselves.
Phil Mickelson won the 2013 British Open at Muirfield at 3-under. Zach Johnson won it last year at St. Andrews at 15-under. He also won the 2007 Masters at 1-over. Let the weather decide the scores and let the players play.
The U.S. Open should be given a one-year notice and then it should be de-majored. All previous champions can keep counting it, but it should be replaced by The Players, which has a better field, happens on the same fabulous course each year, is accessible to power and finesse players alike and is run somewhat smoothly by the PGA Tour.
Sure, it’s all semantics. At least it isn’t legalese. What the USGA really needed Sunday was a little dose of Johnnie Cochran: “If the putter doesn’t sit, you must acquit.”
Contact the writer: mark.whicker@langnews.com
