The 2010 PGA will be more remembered for Dustin Johnson’s mistake than Martin Kaymer’s victory. But there’s another side to the Johnson story – his grace in defeat. The way Johnson handled an adverse ruling (two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker) that kept him out of a playoff, has made him a hero, similar to the way that Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was viewed, earlier this summer, after he was robbed of a perfect game by an incorrect umpire’s call, but accepted his misfortune with a shrug.
“It never once crossed my mind that I was in a sand trap,” Johnson said. “It’s very unfortunate. I guess the only worse thing that could have happened is if I made that putt on the last hole (to seemingly win).”
Johnson refused to blame the officials who ruled against him.
“If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have thought I was in the bunker,” he said. “But it’s not up to me. It’s up to the Rules Committee, so got to deal with it.”
Compare Johnson’s reaction – in a much more important circumstance – to the tantrum Michelle Wie threw earlier this year when she committed a similar rules violation, grounding her club in a hazard.
When presented with video evidence of her mistake, Wie first tried to talk her way out of it with a paper-thin excuse, then tried to pout her way out of it.
But we got none of that from the 25-year-old Johnson.
When he wins his first major — perhaps as quickly as next year – many fans will be pulling for him, not so much because he was “robbed,” but because of the way he gracefully accepted his misfortune Sunday at Whistling Straits.
