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.
**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?
**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.
