Tiger Woods congratulates Dustin Johnson, trashes USGA for controversy
Tiger Woods took to Twitter to congratulate Dustin Johnson on his first major and rip the USGA at the same time
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1 min read
Dustin Johnson earned his first major championship with a 69 on Sunday at Oakmont Country Club to win the 2016 U.S. Open. Johnson getting over the hump would have been an extremely popular victory under any circumstance, but after the USGA's bungling of a penalty stroke decision against him, it became even more so.
The USGA assessed Johnson a one-stroke penalty after his round for the ball moving as he was getting ready to putt on No. 5 -- at the time it was deemed to not have been his fault. The ruling did not matter in the end as he won by three strokes anyways, ignoring the potentially devastating distraction of being told on the 12th tee that the review would take place after his round.
Johnson's strong close did not stop PGA Tour stars from ripping into the USGA for the decision. Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and many others took to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the situation.
Tiger Woods also joined in the fray as he congratulated Johnson on his win and strong finish to overcome "that rules farce."
Some great golf by @DJohnsonPGA all week, strong way to finish overcoming that rules farce. Happy Father's Day to DJ and all of you.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) June 20, 2016
It was incredible to see how unified all of the players were in ripping into the USGA's decision, which refused Johnson's claims that it was not him that moved the ball.
In the end, he took the stroke penalty because it did not matter, but the USGA just can't seem to avoid angering players at the U.S. Open. This year was going on without much complaint, unlike Chambers Bay last year, but the penalty assessed to Johnson made sure that discussion would be about that and not solely his performance on the course, which was tremendous.
