ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.. DJ ALONE IS TO BLAME FOR THE DEBACLE ON 18..

At every PGA tournament (even at the amatuer level) players are given a notice of "local" rules pertaining to the course the players are playing that week.. ie..building relief.. hazard configuration...drop areas and so forth that pertain to that perticular course.. Every course has some minor quirks or unusual items .. This week is was the traps .. Because of the large number OUTSIDE the ropes players were told even though there may be footprints or tire tracks in the sand they were still traps.. Considering there were some coffin size traps on this course and officials went out of there way to point out the trap issue ANY time a player had a ball in any sand alarm bells should have been going off.. At the least should have ask for a ruling before grounding his club in any sand lie.. Players were warned and DJ is a pro and made a rookie mistake.. Without the warning this would be a different story but they were all prewarned .. It sucks.. But it was a bone head move by DL plain and simple..

Awful situation.

I basically agree that this is Dustin Johnson's fault......however, in his defense, I've never seen a gallery standing in a bunker when a player is playing a shot out of it....there was plenty of room for confusion......there wasn't a hell of a lot of crowd control out there during that sequence of events.......that said, Johnson's ball was in sand on a golf course with lots of traps, wouldn't have been too hard to ask a rules official if he was in a bunker or not.....

In the end though and whether you agree with the ruling or not.......golf looks bad on this one. Very unfortunate.

Would he have been in the bunker (Hazard) if his ball came to rest on that grass in the middle of the "bunker" There was no lip and there was also runoff area of sand to the left of his ball.

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But it wasn't.  It was on sand.  I even asked my GF "what the he$$ is he hitting out of?"  And I wasn't even in the meeting where they were told how the bunkers would be played.  Plain and simple, it's the caddie's fault.  DJ's job is to get the ball in the hole....the caddy is supposed to cover his ass because his focus should be on hitting good shots....100%. 

I do agree that the crowd control was horrible on that last hole.  Once again, his caddy should have done something about that too. 

what  kind of  fucking  golf tournament allows the spectators to trample in  a  sand trap.  Even  while  he  hit  the  shot, there were people standing all  over  it. 

The  rules  should  be  clear and  nobody  should  be  allowed to walk  through a trap.  If  I  were Dustin  Johnson  I'd  be  pissed.

I  agree,  he's responsible .  all other players would  have  had  to  do  the  same thing.  and  his  caddy had a  role  in not  recognizing  the  situation.    Why didnt  they  have  a  rake ????

If that was S. Williams and Tiger, 1. I would guarantee he would have asked for a ruling....and 2. Williams would have kicked some ass on the crowd and gotten them the hell off of DJ's nuts.  I was amazed that he actually hit that shot with some jackass about 2 feet from his ball.  Caddy should have taken control of that ENTIRE situation.

All that said, I did hear a marshall was with each group.  Why they didn't think about reminding them about the status of waste bunkers for that week I'll never know. 

Exactly............why not let 'em walk on the greens while your at it. It may have been a wild drive but wtf, on that course he was still in play

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It's a bad analogy unfortunately (I thought this yesterday as it was happening).  All players were informed that waste bunkers "outside the ropes" would be treated as regular bunkers....and that they may have tire prints or foot prints in them.  They didn't say the same things about the greens. 

Everyone was informed.  Inexperience bit DJ in the ass.  I'm just glad he didn't make that par putt. 

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I just thought I was on a piece of dirt that the crowd had trampled down. I never thought I was in a sand trap. It never once crossed my mind that I was in a bunker. Obviously I know the Rules of Golf, and I can’t ground my club in a bunker, but that was just one situation I guess. Maybe I should have looked to the rule sheet a little harder

The Whistling Straits golf course (at which the PGA Championship was played) had a “supplementary rules of play” (as most courses do) that addresses its notoriously vague bunkers:

1. Bunkers: All areas of the course that were designed and built as sand bunkers will be played as bunkers (hazards), whether or not they have been raked. This will mean that many bunkers positioned outside of the ropes, as well as some areas of bunkers inside the ropes, close to the rope line, will likely include numerous footprints, heel prints and tire tracks during the play of the Championship. Such irregularities of surface are a part of the game and no free relief will be available form these conditions.

Note 1: The sand area in front, left and behind No. 5 green in the later water hazard is NOT a bunker (do not move stones).

Note 2: Where necessary, blue dots define the margin of a bunker.

Here is the official statement issued by the PGA about the penalty and Dustin Johnson being eliminated from participating in the playoff round which includes the Whistling Straits bunker rule:

Dustin Johnson was assessed a two-stroke penalty today upon the completion of the final round of the 92nd PGA Championship, for grounding his club in a bunker on the 18th hole at Whistling Straits.

The penalty dropped Johnson to a finishing score of 9-under-par 279 and he was not eligible to compete in a three-hole aggregate playoff to determine the 2010 Champion.

The following is the wording that was made available to all competitors by The PGA of America Rules Committee, as a Local Rule for the 92nd PGA Championship:

Bunkers: All areas of the course that were designed and built as sand bunkers will be played as bunkers (hazards), whether or not they have been raked. This will mean that many bunkers positioned outside of the ropes, as well as some areas of bunkers inside the ropes, close to the rope line, will likely include numerous footprints, heel prints and tire tracks during the play of the Championship. Such irregularities of surface are a part of the game and no free relief will be available from these conditions.

How many courses allow spectators in areas that are "in play"?  Just about every single one of them. 

 Really? Name the last time fans were walking through/standing in a sand trap, i.e. when's the last time this situation occurred?

  If they wanted the bunkers to be clearly defined and raked and in top quality condition, the fans would have to stand about 120 yards off the fairway, and wouldn't be able to enjoy the experience. 

 Well that's too bad............perhaps they shouldn't have a major at that course then.

 I've been to dozens of tournaments throughout the country, and it's always a possibility of a player hitting a ball into the spectators. 

 Of course it is...........happens every week. But the fans aren't occupying the bunkers. I've already said that DJ & his caddy made a mistake.........no dispute there.