... But I do think Dustin made the ball move. If Lowry did, so did DJ. DJ deserves the penalty. But the USGA did blow this.
As usual, your logic fails the smell test. Lowry grounded his putter behind the ball. DJ did not.
Grounding the club has nothing to do with the ruling. In fact, the ball moved before he had a chance to ground it. The question is, did him grounding twice on the putting green, or taking the club from practice to address cause the ball to move.
All very true.
Given that you've taken the lonesome courageous decision of defending the USGA, why exactly could they not call the penalty after the second time they spoke to DJ ?(and asked all the right questions they felt the referee had missed)
His story never changed so speaking to him a third time after didn't lead to the penalty.
I recognize they were using a prior decision they felt more relevant than the actual rule 34-2 about the referee's call being final.
My first problem is that the video showed nothing to clearly overturn the referee's decision, but I accept the overruling-just not the timing (or lack of)
I'd bet that if DJ was a stroke ahead at the end, they would have made a different ruling and gone with 34-2,
but we'll never know.
Regardless, the burden of proof is now on the player to prove he is innocent, rather than being presumed innocent.
Game of honor indeed