1200 / 18 = 67

[JESII]

67 bunkers per hole and this guy needed an official to tell him he was in one?

[JESII]

18th Hole


1 shot lead


Major Championship on the line


Brain Fart!

[Garland Bayley]

Sully,

MATH!?!?

I thought that was my domain. Way to go!

I see you are doing psychology too, with the mental diagnosis.

Way to go!

[Doug Siebert]

When I was watching it on TV I was thinking that it looked like he grounded his club, but I figured it just looked like it but he really hovers it ala Nicklaus.  Then he did it again before he struck the shot and I figured he's the pro and he's got a caddie and presumably there is an official with the last group (though not necessarily following him around through that crowd to his ball)

I can't really say I feel bad for the guy.  I'm sure many feel he got screwed since he got no advantage from it but given that he got no advantage why wouldn't he err on the side of caution??  Part of handling the pressure in a major is not pulling off the shots and making the putts, but not letting your head get stupid.  He failed in the first part in the US Open, but got over it then today failed in the second part.  Hopefully for him he's able to overcome that issue as easily as it seems he overcame the first...

[JESII]

Garland,

And did you notice how few words I needed for the two tasks...ultimate efficiency.

For what it's worth, he handled it amazingly well an dseems to be an easy guy to root for...but all these threads slamming the course and the PGA are ridiculous.


I blew a potential career highlight in 1999 when, in the round of 16 at the British Amateur at Royal County Down I had a complete brain fart like this...I was one up on the 18th and hit it in the rough but laid up fine and really just looked to need a par to advance...except for the fact that I thought I was even and so instead of playing to the front of the green for an easy two putt, I hit a shot pin high that missed off the left side and left a very difficult up and down...which I failed to convert. Walking from the fairway towards the green I literally had to stop and ask my caddy how the match stood...you want to see a look of amazement on a 50 yard old Northern Irishman caddying for a 24 yeard moron...the wires can just short circuit.

[Garland Bayley]

Ah yes, the voice of experience. Thanks for the story.

For me, DJ is easy to root for because of his height. I maintain that great golfers will keep getting taller and taller just like the population, and just like they have in the past. Others somehow have decided that golf skill is a special skill that will be reserved for the shorter players.

[JESII]

I imagine it didn't occur to him that he was in a bunker because he was in the middle of 5,000 people and who would put a bunker there...but he's tall so we'll have to understand his challenges...

[JohnV]

I'm sure many feel he got screwed since he got no advantage from it ...

I've heard this about 1000 times between yesterday and today and I want to vomit every single time.

There is a huge advantage to being able to ground your club before a shot.  Nevermind the little dent in the sand you make with the sole of the club.  Let's assume that the dent is so small as to have no imact.  

The primary benefit is the ability to set the club upon the ground and relax your hands, arms and shoulders.  It takes muscle tension to hover a golf club behind a ball.  That tension affects the shot.  Period.  So to say that grounding the club provides no advantage is fallacious, IMO, with only one exception - a guy who always hovers - and never grounds - his club.  Of course, that guy would never have grounded his club in the first place!  

Not to mention the guy who knocks down the little pile of sand behind his ball on the backswing, thereby clearing a path to the ball.  Penalties are meant to approximate the maximum amount of benefit the player could get.  Sometimes that makes them seem severe when little was gained, but we can't apply penalities based on some arbitrary guess at how much the player could gain in that situation.