Let me get this straight, and no, I don't care what the slo-mo video that was viewed eight billion times shows, the ball moved. Right? The ball moved. Now, did Mr. Johnson cause that ball to move or not? That is the question that really needed to be addressed in the final round of the US Open on Sunday. Johnson said that the ball moved. The official agreed that the ball had moved. The official then made the judgement call, while standing in the spot that the movement happened, that it was not a foul and instructed Johnson to putt out without incurring a penalty. Thank you, we are done here.
Then, the USGA had to get stupid, and you can't fix stupid. First off, don't go back and look at it on super slo-mo video and certainly don't contradict your rules officials on the course that were standing in the spot where it happened. If an umpire misses a called third strike in baseball and then the next pitch is driven out of the park for a game winning home run, they don't go back and tell the hitter he is out after the game is over. If there is a foul on a three pointer with 30 seconds left in the game, you don't wait until after the team wins by two to tell them that there will be 3 free throws after the game ends. It's just not done.
The USGA says they "regret" the way it was handled, but they should come right out and say, "We blew this one big time." There's nothing short of that. If Johnson had grounded the club and had the ball roll 4 feet on those lightning fast greens, I could see this going down much differently, but it didn't. It moved a fraction of an inch and didn't give him an advantage in the slightest. While I am all for the integrity of the game and the following of the Rules of Golf, once an official has ruled (and I will say one more time, he was ON SITE) it needs to be finished.
This was not a situation where a player improved a lie in the woods, or kicked their ball out from behind a tree to get a better view of the green. This was a case of a ball moving a fraction of an inch on a lightning fast putting surface and not making one bit of difference in the outcome of the tournament. Congrats USGA, you just made yourself look dumb by going to that video AFTER the fact.
Oh, and by the way, Mr. Johnson, congrats on your title - and your first major!
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