Dustin Johnson

Just a couple months ago, Dustin Johnson blew up in the final round of the U.S. Open. On Sunday at the PGA Championship, his chances blew up on the 72nd hole when he grounded his club in an area he failed to recognize as a bunker.
Whistling Straits has, as the television viewers are constantly reminded, around 1,000 bunkers. Most of them are considered cosmetic - not in play. Some of them are tiny. Some of them are, in appearance, unlike bunkers you'll find anywhere else. But every single one of them is a bunker.

Johnson reached the 72nd tee with a 1-stroke lead. He hit a drive wild right - way right. So far right that Johnson found one of those weird little Whistling Straits bunkers that normally doesn't come into play. And he failed to recognize it as a bunker.

That's not as odd as it sounds. That little bunker had been trampled on all day; fans were standing in it before Johnson hit, there were fans all around it and even in it while Johnson was playing the stroke, and fans filed back into after he hit.

And Johnson did ground his club while he was in that bunker. Johnson bogied that 72nd hole to fall into a 3-way tie with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson. He should have been headed into a playoff. But even before leaving that final green, Johnson was informed by a PGA of America official that there was a potential penalty.

After a long discussion in the scoring area, after viewing the replays, Johnson had to erase the "5" from his scorecard and change it to a "7" to account for the 2-stroke penalty. No playoff.

Was the ruling fair? The rules are clear, and I don't see how the PGA had any leeway to avoid assessing the penalty. Especially after hearing the PGA explain how much they stressed to players all week that every bunker on the course would be played as a bunker, no matter how far outside the ropes it was, no matter how many fans had trampled through it. They even posted notices in the lockerroom stressing the bunker policy. This was a potential issue stressed all week to the players.

But regardless of how anyone feels about the fairness or unfairness - or inevitability - of the ruling itself, probably most will agree that that the PGA needs to give some thought to the design of Whistling Straits - to all those bunkers so far outside of the normal corridors of play. Johnson proved they are reachable, so should fans be allowed to trample through them? On the other hand, if you keep fans away from all those bunkers, you severely limit the accessibility of the course to fans. It's an issue that needs much more thought before the PGA Championship returns here in 2015.

What a terrible break for Johnson. But Johnson proved in the aftermath of his U.S. Open meltdown that he's good at coming back from adversity. Nobody should doubt that he'll come back from this, too.