{"id":170487,"date":"2025-06-09T14:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170487\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T14:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:46:14","slug":"amateur-hour-rory-mcilroy-was-furious-with-us-open-rules-farce-and-threatened-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170487\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Amateur hour\u2019 – Rory McIlroy was furious with US Open rules farce and threatened boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fraction of an inch once sparked scenes of chaos at the US Open, which led to a rewrite of golf\u2019s hallowed rulebook.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2016 major was held at Oakmont<\/a>, where it returns this year after a ball movement barely visible to the human eye dogged its last edition.<\/p>\n

\"Dustin<\/a><\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Dustin Johnson won the last event at Oakmont but had reason not to smileCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

That year\u2019s event was won by American Dustin Johnson – the first of two career majors – and that he still took the win given what was happening in the scorer\u2019s tent showed the laser focus of a deserving champion.<\/p>\n

Johnson was facing overnight leader Shane Lowry<\/a> for victory on the final day but as he was pulling ahead drama struck, although no one on the course or sidelines was aware why.<\/p>\n

Going for his putt on the fifth green Johnson made two practice strokes and when he went for his shot, the ball moved.<\/p>\n

Noticing the tiny touch, he called over referee Mark Newell who cleared him of any infringement, as did playing partner Lee Westwood.<\/p>\n

Trouble averted? Not in the slightest.<\/p>\n

Johnson would continue his championship round, only dropping one shot to record par and put Lowry\u2019s challenge to bed with a three shot lead.<\/p>\n

The South Carolina native could\u2019ve been forgiven for getting nervous ahead of what would be his first major, never mind the distraction that came next.<\/p>\n

Little known to everyone on the course, while Johnson was heading towards triumph, United States Golf Association [USGA] official Craig Winter had been reviewing the ball movement on the fifth and had called in Thomas Pagel, the USGA\u2019s chief governance officer.<\/p>\n

Rule 18.2 stated that if it was \u2018more likely than not\u2019 that a player caused the ball to move then they should be given a penalty.<\/p>\n

Winter and Pagel came to an agreement, which they then had to communicate to Johnson just before he teed off on the 12th.<\/p>\n

\"Johnson's<\/a><\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Johnson’s touch was barely visibleCredit: ESPN\"And<\/a><\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

And it took seven more holes for him to be informed about what was happening by an officialCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

As the shock became clear to those watching, one of them, Rory McIlroy<\/a>, expressed his dismay on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ridiculous… No penalty whatsoever for DJ,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the guy play without this crap in his head. Amateur hour from USGA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t right for anyone. If it was me I wouldn\u2019t hit another shot until this farce was rectified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan Spieth<\/a> was in agreement, adding: \u201cLemme get this straight. DJ doesn\u2019t address it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ruled that he didn\u2019t cause it to move. Now you tell me he may have? Now? This is a joke?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

McIlroy led the outrageCredit: Getty\"Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Johnson finished four strokes ahead but wasn’t sure what was going onCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Somehow, Johnson didn\u2019t let the moment bother him, and even stepped up his game, recording his first birdie of the round to end the tournament four strokes ahead of Lowry.<\/p>\n

No one knew what was happening or if there would even be a penalty with Johnson unable to celebrate and called in for a meeting with USGA staff.<\/p>\n

There was a penalty, but thankfully for those watching and in attendance it was just a single stroke, giving Johnson his first major win in the most dramatic of circumstances.<\/p>\n

Explaining what went through his mind after being informed of the possible penalty, he said: \u201cI just told myself, We\u2019ll worry about it when we get done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I was going to be penalised. They said they were going to review.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing I could do about it. Just focus on this next shot. I tried to do that from there, all the way to the house. It was just me and the golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Once<\/a><\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Once everything was ratified Johnson could finally celebrate with his familyCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

A statement later issued by the USGA offered an apology of sorts as they said: “Upon reflection, we regret the distraction caused by our decision to wait until the end of the round to decide on the ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is normal for rulings based on video evidence to await the end of a round, when the matter can be discussed with the player before the score card is returned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile our focus on getting the ruling correct was appropriate, we created uncertainty about where players stood on the leader board after we informed Dustin on the 12th tee that his actions on the fifth green might lead to a penalty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis created unnecessary ambiguity for Dustin and the other players, as well as spectators on-site, and those watching and listening on television and digital channels.”<\/p>\n

Six months later the USGA and R&A announced a complete overhaul of the Rules of Golf\u2019s 34 laws.<\/p>\n

One of them covered a repeat, as from January 1, 2017, tournament officials at all levels could invoke a Local Rule which eliminates the penalty when a ball is accidentally moved on a putting green.<\/p>\n

While changes to the Rules of Golf were already being made, Pagel later said the Johnson incident created a \u2018sense of urgency\u2019 as they \u2018had to do better\u2019.<\/p>\n

Thankfully for them Johnson couldn\u2019t have done much more himself, with his four stroke lead ending any chance of one of the biggest robberies sport has ever seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fraction of an inch once sparked scenes of chaos at the US Open, which led to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[22482,2826,4366,34073,65914,4287,79,16,15,5067],"class_list":{"0":"post-170487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-dustin-johnson","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-golf-news","11":"tag-golf-updates","12":"tag-oakmont","13":"tag-rory-mcilroy","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-us-open"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114653953230757256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}