Peter - I completely disagree. The local rules were clearly defined and it is the responsibility of every player to know those rules. Could the PGA of America done a better job of crowd control ? Absolutely. Nonetheless, the players bear the ultimate responsibility.

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Pete's reply: I partially concede that point, but I've played a lot of golf and the fact that there is sand in the rough doesn't generally make it a hazard. If you watched the replay, you saw that the area was so trampled that it looked more like ground under repair.

Peter, I completely agree! Your "rules are rules BUT ..." paragraph stated your case perfectly. Like Dustin said, "what bunker"? What's done is done but the PGA needs to rethink the local rules the next time they play Whistling Straights!

I agree with everything you've said. Maybe you missed your calling and golf is really your bag? Why oh why, if that area is truly a bunker, did the rules committe, the PGA and Whistling Straights allow people to be standing in it when he teed off?????

You're spot on with your scorecard assessment, I can see it in small regional events where no TV is there to keep updated stats, but on TV for a golfer to have to sign a correct scorecard is insane. Why not sign the scorecard the PGA tallies for him?

Old rules and new technology at the same time. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me either.

Pete,

I never thought of it that way. On the one hand, golf wants to stick to very old, and often ridiculous traditions, yet to enforce such they need to rely on instant replay to render a verdict.

Take when a ball is on the green for example. If you ground your putter behind the ball and the ball moves the tiniest of fractions, you must call a one stroke penalty on yourself.

Now some of the greens these players play on are so fast, that one's ball can move with the slightest wind gust. It's the most ridiculous rule in sports.

In a tourney last year, one player called a penalty on herself, thinking the ball moved. On tv though, even slow motion couldn't catch the ball moving. In an interview on the golf channel, the player admitted that he was so paranoid that she erred on the side of the penalty stroke, thinking there may be footage showing it moved.

How sick is it that these players have to worry that there's an eye in the sky for rules so absurd that it ruins the cred of the sport?

I know, I know..... Golf is a gentleman's game. A game of tradition.

BS

These guys have NEVER played a course where an area outside the ropes is considered a sand trap. Yes, the rules are the rules, but in this case, the official walking with the final group should have immediately gone over to the ball and helped the player out.

I love golf.... but the folks that run the sport are (fill in the blank).

Here's my letter to the PGA:

Subject: THE PGA SHOULD BE ASHAMED
Importance: High

Note to the PGA and PGA Tournament Organizers (Barry Deach, Championship
Director),

The way you robbed that poor kid Dustin Johnson of a chance to play in a
life-altering Playoff today was absolutely wrong-headed, unfair and just
plain foul.

By administering a penalty such as this to an upstanding Tour member who had
left his heart on the course has forever tarnished my view of the PGA. In
the Branding you have used over the years to promote the PGA, I have come to
respect this organization as one with integrity and honor. Neither of these
characteristics were exhibited with your punitive and draconian treatment of
Dustin Johnson today.

I won't even get into the myriad of errors that your Rules committee bungled
their way through. Suffice it to say that they and the entire PGA are guilty
of tainting the entire event. An event which, up until that moment, was one
of the most intense, exciting and absorbing events I had ever witnessed.

Kudos to the Rules committee at the PGA tournament for ruining their own
event. A great injustice was also done to the other tournament participants.
You have lost a fan today here and I'm sure there are a HOST of others like
myself who instantly lost respect for your organization and tournament upon
that flawed ruling.

Enthusiastically,

Where's Eldrick?!

I turned the TV off after the ruling. I felt it was a flawed playoff at that point.

Every sport has its rules. But the PGA keeps alienating itself from the general public. It was like when Casey Martin couldn't use a cart and had to sue the PGA. He wasn't gaining an advantage, he's got a physical handicap.

Sports with rigid governing bodies fail to appreciate the commons sense approach fans prefer. PGA, NASCAR, NCAA as it relates to some of its violations, and MLB for digging in its heels on Pete Rose. The NFL is pretty good about it, but Goodell's one-man judge and jury approach could be changed.

The PGA should have used some commons sense here. But since they are unwilling to use judgement in any of their rules, they lose the true value of the sportsmanship and entertainment golf's intended to provide.

Pete, I'm driving my cart through every sand trap in protest from hereon!

Pete --

Regarding your comment that, "he could have been forgiven for signing his scorecard and sticking it in somebody's ear."

Johnson had 270,000 good reasons not to do that -- if he signed an incorrect scorecard, he would have been DQ'd and lost the $270,000 in 5th place money.

The PGA of America are rookies at running a golf event. Once again they looked rediculous when compared to the other Majors and the PGA TOUR.

ridiculous

I feel bad for Johnson, but golf is a game where the rules and traditions are understood. I'd much rather leave it untouched. Look at football and hockey. They are shells of their classic selves and made for TV rather than made for competition. Once sports start tinkering, they just can't stop.

Every golfer knows the rules when they start. It's something we're taught when we're little. In this case the rules were posted like wallpaper and Johnson knew to be careful. He asked the judges on 2 other holes:

"But Price had dealt with two other questions from Johnson or his caddie about bunkers the previous few holes. On No. 14, Johnson hit into an area just past a bunker and asked if he could take some practice swings for that shot in the bunker. Since the ball wasn't in the bunker, Price told him he could. Then, on No. 16, Johnson's caddie asked if he could remove some stones near the ball. Price told him they were in a bunker and by rule they can move loose impediments as long as the golf ball doesn't move. But there was no doubt to Price that Johnson was in a bunker.

"All he had to do was ask," Price said. "He'd asked me before that. He'd been in a bunch of bunkers. You don't remind a player on every hole that you can't ground your club."

He also got the benefit of replay actually:

"Price and the other rules officials offered to take Johnson to the CBS trailer where they have high resolution cameras, but once Johnson saw the replay in the scoring area, he knew he had grounded his club and said so. That meant a two-stroke penalty was assessed and Johnson was out of the three-hole aggregate playoff."

The quotes are from espn.com.

Anyway, mental lapses are part of any competition and you can't make an excuse for every one.

I'm reluctant to comment on golf when this is a sports section but it is better than wrasslin' ...

Okay, Johnson broke the rules and was assessed the proper penalty. He can have both the blame and sympathy. He certainly couldn't have been classier.

What I find interesting is his caddy (and others) set the golf bags down in what had to be one of the hundreds of bunkers, and no one was assessed penalties for that -- also part of the rules.

Where I blame the PGA is why are they playing that tournament there in the first place. Might as well construct some windmills and loop-de-loops while they're at it. And to think they are returning to that dump of a course in 2015. Deplorable.

Then again, it is only a game.

"The course is good, I feel good, I like my chances!"

It would have been exciting and possibly felonious if it had been George Brett to whom they assessed the stroke.