Dustin Johnson Finally Wins a Major

Last updated on: June 20, 2016 at 12:07 am by Kermit Zarley

Dustin Johnson Finally Wins a Major 2016-06-20T00:07:40-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As I said in my post two days ago, Dustin Johnson has been knocking on the door many times in trying to win one of the four majors in pro golf. Today, he finally knocked the door down even though for a while, it looked like another bad break might sink his ship again.

Dustin won the 2016 U.S. Open by three strokes, at four under par, on the tough Oakmont Country Club with the very slippery, fast greens and picturesque sand bunkers called Church Pews, all near Pittsburgh, PA.

Little-known Irishman Scot Lowry started today with a large lead of four strokes over the field. He drove the ball excellent all day, but his putter did him in on the closing holes by missing three close putts in a row, on 14, 15, and 16. Until that happened, Lowry and Dustin Johnson kept trading the lead back and forth at between 5 under and 3 under par in the middle of the last and fourth round of the tournament. Johnson, one of the longest hitters in professional golf, was putting on a driving exhibition today and most of the tournament. But then he had another mishap that threatened to derail him again.

Dustin Johnson has had so many chances to win a major, and something would go wrong. The first time it happened was the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2012. He led starting the last round. Then on the par-five second hole, from only a few feet off the green in the rough, he double-hit his little wedge shot and finished with a horrendous eight. That sunk his ship for the day.

The next time was the PGA Championship at Whistling Straights in Wisconsin. He led by one stroke on the last hole. But his drive slightly right was in what he thought was a waste bunker, but was actually a sand bunker where people had walked. That is a strange situation, and waste bunkers with some sand are a rarity in golf anyway. You can ground your club in a waste bunker, but doing so in a sand bunker is a one shot penalty. Dustin grounded his club and hit his shot. A U.S.G.A. official then informed him that he had broken the rule and must be assessed a one shot penalty. Dustin therefore finished the hole one stroke behind and therefore missed being in a sudden death playoff.

Today, it was deja vu. On the twelfth hole, Dustin had a short putt. His habit is to sole his putter very close to the ball and then take one or two practice strokes before hitting the ball. So, this time he soled his putter and took a little practice stroke. Then he did it again. In only perhaps two or three seconds after his second practice stroke he put the putter head behind the ball but still off the ground while holding the putter grip with only his right hand, which is his habit. At that instant, his ball rolled backwards at what appeared to be at least a quarter inch displacement or more. The ball did very noticeably move from its position. And Johnson very noticeably had not put his putter on the surface of the green, but was holding it about a half inch above the green’s surface. As the ball move, he pulled the putter back, and the ball did not hit his putter head.

Dustin then backed away from his position and announced to his playing partner, Lee Westwood, that his ball had moved. And Dustin said that he thought he did not cause the ball to move. The U.S.G.A. rules official who was designated to follow only their group then appeared on the scene. Dustin had a conversation with him, and the official ruled that Dustin had not grounded his club when the ball moved and that therefore he was not to be assessed a penalty of one stroke for causing the ball to move.

Dustin then putted out and proceeded to the next hole. But another U.S.G.A. rules official came alongside Johnson and informed him that while his soling his club with his practice strokes may have caused the ball to afterwards move. The official said that their rules team would review the video of it when Dustin completed his round and would then give the final and official ruling. Thus, Dustin had to play the remainder of his round with the worry that he may be assessed a one stroke penalty and therefore be playing with one more stroke on his scorecard than he thought.

Then the television commentators began discussing this. Paul Azinger was one of them. Paul was an outstanding PGA Tour player, a PGA Championship winner, a guy who beat serious brain cancer, and a crowd favorite throughout his career. In my opinion, Paul Azinger is one of the greatest guys I’ve ever known who played the PGA Tour. Paul, in his diplomatic way, got pretty adamant about constantly talking about this most unfortunate and seemingly unfair situation because we saw him having a talk with the main rules official, and he was giving us viewers and Paul the impression that they were going to assess Dustin a one shot penalty.

This discussion isn’t going to go away for a while. And I think they could change this rule. I will say it has been difficult to decide what the proper rule should be about this situation. That’s the way golf is. No game has so many rulings as golf does. Even many pros hate to read the rule book.

Then the television crew started flashing twitter comments from some of the top names in pro golf who had missed the cut there, such as Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler. They were saying it would be totally unfair to assess Dustin Johnson a penalty for that.

One of the problems was that Oakmont has some severely sloping greens. But that didn’t affect Johnson’s situation, since he was on a pretty flat surface, close to the hole. The problem is that the maintenance crew, directed by U.S.G.A. officials, roll the greens with heavy equipment in order to make the greens very fast. The problem with that is it increases the chances of causing a ball to move while lying still on a green without any wind blowing.

But the Stoic Dustin Johnson–perhaps more so than the unflappable, silent, and legendary Ben Hogan–kept plodding along, working at controlling only what he can control. Thus, he didn’t seem worried about it. And afterwards, he said his attitude was that he couldn’t control it, and he didn’t think he caused the ball to move, so he didn’t think he would be assessed a penalty stroke for it. In other words, he just put it out of his mind. And boy, did he plod along and control his ball! He parred almost all the way to the clubhouse on that very difficult course. Then he hit two great shots to the long par four eighteenth hole, just like he did last year in the U.S. Open where he lost by one stroke for three putting from fifteen feet on the last hole. His high six iron shot this time nestled six feet from the hole. Then he just touched that downhill putt that rolled so beautifully, right into the cup.

Dustin Johnson, what a champ! Through all of his heartbreaks of being so close to winning majors and never getting it done because some crazy, unfortunate thing would happen to him, or he would keep hitting pretty good putts that would constantly roll across the lip of the cup, even this week. Yet he never let any of it get him down so that he embarrassed himself with actions he would later regret. No, Dustin Johnson has been an absolute gentleman in overcoming these bad breaks along his journey, and he’s finally been rewarded for it. That’s Gentleman Golf, folks, as the game should be played.

And it was neat seeing him walk off the last green to the scorer room with his wife and holding his two year old boy on Father’s Day. Much kudos to Dustin Johnson, the 2016 United States Open golf champion.

Previous Post

June 19, 2016

What Is the Subordination of the Son?

Next Post

June 25, 2016 What Is Religious Conversion in Israel?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I killed 600 Philistines with nothing but an oxgoad. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Samson Shamgar Ehud Gideon

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »