Lee Westwood gives firsthand account of absurd Dustin Johnson-USGA fiasco
Lee Westwood has finally spoken publicly about the USGA's penalizing of Dustin Johnson's which Westwood called "handled very badly"
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2 min read
Lee Westwood had a front row seat for Dustin Johnson's wild Sunday at Oakmont as the American bomber earned his first career major championship despite confusion regarding a USGA penalty.
While Westwood fell out of contention early in the final round after posting a front-nine 43, he earned a great deal of praise for how he handled the situation with Johnson, encouraging him along the way despite the baffling decisions of the USGA.
Westwood spoke publicly for the first time on the matter on Monday with Golf Digest and detailed the situation that he said was "handled very badly," including the process the golfers went through on the fifth green in initially deciding Johnson did not cause the ball to move.
"As he went to put his putter behind the ball, it moved very slightly ... Dustin actually called it on himself before I said or did anything," said Westwood. "But I knew his putter had not been behind the ball when it moved. As far as I was concerned, he had not caused it to move. He certainly hadn't touched it. I'm not sure how else he could have moved it, to be honest. How does he move the ball if he hasn't touched it with his putter?
"To be fair, the ball was sitting on a slight up slope, which is why it moved backward. Anyway, Dustin called in the referee who asked if he could think of any way in which he could have caused the ball to move. Dustin said he couldn't. I agreed with him, and the referee said play on. That was really the end of it as far as I was concerned."
The true madness began on the 12th tee when USGA officials approached Johnson to tell him that they would be reviewing the video with him after the round to determine whether he would incur a penalty stroke. Westwood, like most everyone else, felt that particular decision was ridiculous and was happy that it didn't directly impact the tournament result.
"The whole thing was handled very badly," said Westwood. "I don't think anyone should be treated the way Dustin was. A ruling was made on the fifth green and that should have been it, cut and dried. He certainly should never have been asked to play the last six holes of the U.S. Open without knowing what the score was. I was thinking going down the 12th, 'Does Shane Lowry in the next group know where he stands?' It was ridiculous.
"Imagine if Dustin had got to the last green and had a putt that mattered. He wouldn't have known what to do. There was nobody there willing to make the decision. And when they eventually did, they got it wrong, in my opinion."
Westwood's comments are in line with the consensus of every other golfer that spoke out about the ridiculousness of the ruling on Twitter, including the likes of Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. The difference is, Westwood was in the group and watched the entire thing unfold in front of him rather than watching on TV.
The USGA will hopefully learn from the mistake and have said they will revisit their policies on making a ruling on penalty strokes in the future. As Westwood noted, luckily it didn't result in Johnson having a putt that mattered on the 18th hole with the weight of a potential ruling looming over the entire moment.
