Woods Commits To Barclays!

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Heartwarming to see Tiger entering the event he's typically skipped (except to play lovely Liberty National) from the admittedly clogged portion of the schedule.
After The Barclays, only the top 100 are eligible for the second round, the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston, which ends on Labor Day. That will be the final event before U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin announces his four wild-card picks.

"DJ took about four minutes from the time he arrived to the scene to the second he made contact with it."

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Stephanie Wei interviews photographer Allan Henry, who could be seen in several images directly behind Dustin Johnson when he violated the rules in the 18th hole bunker. Henry says Johnson never grounded his club on his practice swings and also notes this, which might be of interest to those who think Johnson rushed the shot.

According to the time stamp on Allan’s pictures, DJ took about four minutes from the time he arrived to the scene to the second he made contact with it. In those few minutes, he had the marshals move the crowd, take a few practice swings, make a few jokes with the gallery and then hit it.

Another PGA Question: Who Wants To Return To Whistling Straits?

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Definitely not the media!

And the player comments haven't exactly been glowing. Not that this means anything. After all, we know that complaints about a course can often be a compliment to the architecture. But after another four rounds at WS, I'm not sensing it really is worthy of a return visit. Yet a 2015 return date looms and a few days removed from the PGA, I've had the pleasure of listening to several phone rants from folks who found the entire week to be one they'd like to forget.

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Dustin Johnson and Intent**

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One reason the Dustin Johnson penalty is not sitting well: he did not test the sand in the bunker. He did not intend to violate the rule. That said, he violated the rule. No question. But in a few well-known cases of late, rules officials have allowed intent to influence their decision to not penalize a player. Rory McIlroy kicking sand at the Masters and Kenny Perry mashing down rough behind his ball in Phoenix come to mind. (There is an old post with stellar comments well worth going back and reading for those interested in the intent debate, including one by Tom Kirkendall that will make you giggle at its prescience.)

While I understand the rule in question and the violation by Johnson, why isn't intent allowed to play a role here? After all, the only reason we know about this incident is because it happened on camera. The walking rules official did not see the violation happen and Johnson was not going to call a penalty on himself because he didn't realize he committed one. Had this happened Thursday off camera, no penalty would likely have been incurred. So since we have the addition of cameras, tape and viewers calling in, leading to penalties like this, shouldn't the rules also allow for that tape to take intent into account? It seems that precedent has already been set with the statements in the McIlroy and Perry episodes? No?

Rules gurus, please set me straight!