Hannigan Gets The Last Word (This Morning) On Dustin Johnson And His Walking Rules Official
/From the former USGA Executive Director, Frank Hannigan:
On the Johnson drop the search for a villain goes on, yet nobody has identified the most likely suspects, the PGA and its rules committee for the week.
The question to be asked of its chairman is this "Did you order your walking officials not to speak to players unless the players spoke first, especially on the matter of rules?"
If so, you've got your villain - the PGA rules people.
David Price, the official with Johnson, was not a Referee as defined in the Rules of Golf, but he was certainly representing the Committee.
The policy of the USGA has always been to have its officials intervene if they sense a rules violation is about to occur - not to wait and say "Gotcha."
Price should have said to Johnson before he left him to help with crowd control, "You know you are in a bunker, right?"
It is possible that Price did what he was told by the committee. It's also possible he took his instructions too literally. It's one or the other.
** Here was the PGA of America's Mark Wilson after the round, explaining the role the walking rules official plays.
Q. (Inaudible.)
MARK WILSON: No, he didn't consult the walking official and as you know the walking official that's assigned to the group in the case of stroke play is not as much like a Match Play referee. In other words the walking official is there designed to help the player and to answer a player's question but the walking official in stroke play is not their to strategize every player's stroke or cover over a player who is making a stroke. These are experienced Tour players who by and large know the rules and we want to assist them as best we can, but he did not consult with David Price, the walking official that was the reason David was there and assigned to walk with the group. He certainly could have stepped away and said, you know, David, can you confirm the status of the area that I'm in.
Q. And he's not going to jump in and offer that advice unless asked?
MARK WILSON: David certainly would have jumped in, under the circumstances with the many people over there, it was hard. Obviously, for the player himself to get there, let alone for the walking official. If the walking official can prevent a breach of the rules, he certainly will, but under the circumstances it was hard enough to get the player over there and again if it's that hard to get the player over there, all the rules official is going to be doing is hovering over the player and they're really not trying to encourage that, we're not trying to tell the players that's, hey, you've been assigned a walking official because we're going to scrutinize every rule.
