PGA's Walking Rules Official: "asked Dustin if there was anything he needed, if there was anything I could do."**
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Nice scoop by Bill Fields to track down the PGA's David Price, shedding some background on the official at the scene and his take on the incident. Price not only says he offered Johnson a quick reminder that he was there if he needed help, and that Johnson had asked for assistance not once on the back nine (14th), but twice on the back (16th), making the 18th hole brain freeze that much more painful and bizarre.
For Price, the pressing need on the 18th seemed to be getting the large gallery out of Johnson's way so he could play his second shot. "It was very chaotic," Price said. "This was a very difficult situation based on the topography. There was a very high hill, completed filled with people, because once the grandstands on the right side of 18 filled, this was the only place people could see the green from. The hill was filled with people, and the other side of it was very steep, so people couldn't back up and go down. The marshals did the best they could, but there were probably 3,000 or 4,000 people on that hill."
Price left the area around Johnson's ball to walk 30 yards toward the green and help clear a wider gap on the right. Before he walked away, he "asked Dustin if there was anything he needed, if there was anything I could do. I just didn't have any question it was a bunker, and had there been a question, he should have asked before he proceeded. He knew I was there because I already had answered a couple of questions concerning a bunker with him." Johnson played this shot without any asking any questions.
Clearly, this moment Price alludes to must not have been captured on the live feed. (And for conspiracy theorists, remember, Price is not the man in the white shirt walking by Dustin Johnson, that's an honorary observer.)
**ESPNDallas.com's Richard Durrett also talked to Price (thanks Michael C.) about the scene at the 18th green. Price noted this difference between the back nine bunkers Johnson asked for assistance on and the one he did not ask about.
Price said the bunker on No. 18 that Johnson was in was formed like many other bunkers on the course.
"It was a rather small one, but it was an area that had been dug out and filled with sand," Price said. "The only thing that made it different than previous bunkers is that he hit the ball so far off line, it was in a bunker that had been trampled down instead of one that was finely raked. We told players on the information we gave them that all sand on the course was considered a hazard, even if there were footprints or tire marks."
And, 3000 people swarming its edges, who had to be restrained!
