Every Gets Three Month Suspension For Misdemeanor

I wasn't joking when I said the mug shot was probably greater than the crime, but come on, three months for a little brush with Mary Jane? Alex Miceli reports on Matt Every's PGA Tour suspension for conduct unbecoming, and this:

The suspension will provide Every, who is 144th on the money list with $438,517, only one chance to retain his Tour card. Every will be eligible for the last event of the Fall Series, the the Nov. 11-14 Children’s Miracle Network Classic.

It's a good thing conduct unbecoming is not extended to players who violate the Rules of Golf! Especially two different ways on one hole!

Who Dustin Johnson Should Be Expecting Thank You Notes From...

1. Pete Dye - should thank DJ for creating a distraction that will have us forgetting about the worst goofiest finishing holes imaginable. The 17th has been a well known absurdity at 235 yards with extreme banks more suited for a 135 yard par-3, not something receiving mid-to-long irons. But the re-worked 18th was the real standout Sunday, with the new green not improving matters over last time and the re-imagined strategic options non-existent throughout the tournament. That, however, was also the fault of...

2. Kerry Haigh - The PGA's setup man didn't get Whistling Straits right. This is a course that has to be set up with a 20 mph wind in mind no matter the forecast, and the last two PGA's there have given the impression they were not thinking of the effects of wind. There is way too much dark green, U.S. Open-style rough in places that Dye intended as fairway, or worse, thick stuff harvested next to greens. It's all made more disappointing when you hear that they were out primping the stuff up. (On a faux links!?) There also did not appear to be enough varying of yardages and in the case of No. 18, an unfortunate use of a front left hole location likely not accessible with a wedge, much less 5-irons on up to hybrids as we saw Sunday.

When the best shot--according to Faldo and Nantz--is a 5-iron to 20 feet from Rory McIlroy, something is amiss (unless they are playing into a gale force wind, they were not). For all of the people who like to brand what the USGA's Mike Davis does as gimmicky, you can imagine what he might have tried: use the same hole location but move the tee up 75 yards to give the players a chance to use the new fairway and leave themselves with a flip wedge. Potential risk-reward and maybe even better television. This also would have taken those sandy pits along the right side of the fairway out of play, and we probably wouldn't be talking about crowd control and walking rules officials today. But thanks to Johnson's mistake, few noticed just how awful the hole played all week and especially Sunday. (No scoring average for Sunday is available on the website, I guess we'll have to wait for Golf World to hit the mailboxes?).

3. Tiger Woods - He missed the Ryder Cup team on points and now, according to a Tweet by Steve DiMeglio, may miss the playoffs. Unfathomable! And yet, no one is talking about it today.

Dear Dustin: Thanks, From Tiger, Kerry and Pete.

Flashback: "Let me say that I saw flesh-and-blood children digging up rocks and building sand castles in bunkers overlooking the eighth green."**

John Garrity, on Wednesday of PGA week, foreshadowing the inevitable questions about Whistling Straits's sandy hazards with two styles of maintenance, two types of preparation and most definitley two types of supervision.

The sand hazards at Whistling Straits are unlike those at any other major championship. Roped-off spectator paths lead you right into the sand, which is neatly raked on one side of the rope and churned up like a child's sandbox on the other. And before you challenge that last metaphor, let me say that I saw flesh-and-blood children digging up rocks and building sand castles in bunkers overlooking the eighth green.

Update on 2010-08-16 20:02 by Geoff

**Nice spot by reader Michael C. of a PGA posted Getty Image of kids playing in a Whistling Straits bunker. Adorable on so many levels. And screen captured here just in case it should magically disappear into cyberspace.

DJ Crime Scene Image

Brooks has posted a shot of the bunker post-final round and says Johnson had to know he was in a bunker. But I'm still back at, if David Feherty didn't recognize it as such, then the crowd clearly had masked what this was.

Appleby: "I'm very pissed and angered that this is way the 2010 PGA came to an end."

Stuart Appleby, penalized in 2004 for the same violation as Dustin Johnson in 2010, tweets:

Every bunker is listed in the rules last week to be played as normal bunkers and the normal rules apply (aka don't ground club)

I'm very pissed and angered that this is way the 2010 PGA came to an end.

It was listed in many parts of the caddy and player areas of this unique rule for the week.
Dustin and caddy are ultimately responsible for their actions....but WTH

I think that they need to make significant changes to the course that has hundreds of pointless bunkers that patrons have to walk through to view players.

The PGA says that their a part of the game and to be treated as hazards.

Never seen patrons walking through bunkers in any other professional event (world wide) try that at Augusta.

Then I see them using leaf blowers to fluff up the rough to make the course harder (did they have them 100 years ago, think not)

We go back there in 2015 I hear.

What's the next sad story to unfold in Wisconsin?

Stay tuned in 5 years time...

Who Is This Man With Dustin Johnson's Group?**

Is this who observed the infraction, because as you'll notice, he walks right by Dustin Johnson and is well away from the admittedly scary crowd scene where the shot is played from.

Update on 2010-08-16 02:19 by Geoff

**Okay, so we believe the man in the white short to be former PGA President Pat Rielly, an honorary observer of some kind? Perhaps then he is not allowed to say anything? Does anyone know what the role of such an observer is?

The walking rules official is David Price and in all of the footage I have watched, he never gets to Johnson's ball. He is busy doing crowd control about halfway between the ball and fairway, and then can't be seen after that. (He's in a striped golf shirt.)

So here's the issue that needs to be resolved: the walking rules official did not see the violation, it was seen by officials on television. Never a great thing but it happens. But Alex Miceli is reporting on Golf Channel that the USGA specifically told officials to remind players of the situation during the Senior Open there. The PGA has only five walking rules officials on the weekend.

Here's Mark Wilson of the PGA of America after the round:

Q. How much review was given before the ruling was made of the grounding the two shot penalty? Was the video conclusive that he grounded the club?

MARK WILSON: Yeah, the video was conclusive and in fact several of our officials -- I was actually getting ready to run the playoff, which now David Price is continuing and I think you'll all be anxious to see the outcome of that. I was getting ready to run the playoff, so I didn't see it myself, but several of our officials had finished their duty for the day and were in the officials room and were watching it on TV, as well as our official in scoring Brad Gregory, he noticed it as well, so it was fairly evident fairly quickly that there had been a breach of the rules.

But just not by the official in the group.

Q. Did Dustin know the rule?

MARK WILSON: He certainly knows the rule about the penalty involved in grounding your club in a bunker, but he certainly, again, his explanation was essentially, no, I just didn't recognize it as one when I walked in. He didn't recognize it as a bunker when he walked in. And again this is a unique, unique, golf course, the players are used to looking at a smaller number and a more manicured group of them, and so it was different to his eye when he approached it.

Okay, Johnson's fault for not asking if it was a bunker. But it was a just a tad hectic!

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.

He could have, but where was Price? From the video I see, he was busy doing crowd control.

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.

Ahhh...

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.

But it is the 72nd hole of a major championship. Or at least, an event labeled as a major. But did it act like one Sunday?

Update on 2010-08-16 03:02 by Geoff

**Here is the rest of the Johnson related video clipped together. I can't get over the aerial shots and (A) how close the people are to him (B) the striped shirt man that may be his walking rules official is busy with crowd control and (D) Johnson's caddy appears to set the bag down in the "bunker," showing that he did not recognize it as a bunker but instead, thought it was a sandy area.