Plenty of people have an opinion about what happened yesterday to Dustin Johnson at the PGA Championship. What seems pretty clear to us is this: it was an extremely unfortunate thing that happened, but he had ample opportunity to know that what he was hitting out of was a bunker. Whether it should have been classified as a bunker is irrelevant at that point. It is what it is, golf has all sorts of little rules like this, and Johnson paid the price. It was refreshing, then, to hear Steve Elkington essentially say the same thing today on the Jim Rome program. You can have a listen to a 10-minute clip right here. Some of the takeaway quotes from Elkington, who also made it clear he's a huge fan of Dustin Johnson:
* "He obviously couldn't think straight playing on 18."
* "I don't know how those guys don't read the (course rules) sheet. They have it on the back of the toilets." Elkington made it sound like he read it just that way, while taking care of some business.
* "When I was sitting in the locker room … I was thinking, 'he's in the bunker.'" When asked by Rome how he knew that, Elkington plainly replied, " 'cause I read the sheet."
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So there you have it. Johnson can be disappointed. Fans can be baffled by the rule. But it was the same for everyone, it was clearly posted, and Johnson needs to be accountable. We will say this, though: never has a player been so relieved -- at least we would imagine -- that he missed what he thought was a major-winning putt on the final hole. Imagine if he had celebrated a one-stroke victory, only to have it turn into a one-stroke loss.
