Yeah, This Was Exactly What the PGA Tour Needed Right Now…

Stop and consider this for a moment. Last year at this time, golf’s most valuable star in the history of the game was watching as one of the biggest underdogs in the tournament was hoisting his golf bag above his head in celebration. After all, it was not every day that we saw an unknown player like Y.E. Yang beat Tiger Woods, who was easily the best in the world in the mind of golf fans. A year later, and things on tour have completely changed. Tiger’s star is not as bright as it use to be, as his game is struggling and his life off the course is a mess. Those ramifications go beyond Tiger though. It directly affects the PGA Tour as well. Which is why the finish at the 2010 PGA Championship was the exact opposite of what the tour needed at this point in time.

With there being so much uncertainty at the top right now, they simply did not need this. No seriously, they did not need this.

Over the last year, they’ve watched their moneymaker crumble right before the public’s very eyes, and there’s no doubt that he’ll never be as big of a commodity as he use to be. Don’t get me wrong, Tiger showed this week at Whistling Straits that he can still play well. But I don’t think it’s crazy to say at this point that he’s got a lot of work to do before he has a chance to be the dominant figure that he use to be.

And consider the situation surrounding the second best player in the world. Phil Mickelson doesn’t make the tour as much money as Tiger does, but he’s still been the second brightest start in the Tiger era. However, Phil has recently announced an arthritis issue that could certainly affect his performance as the years progress, and it doesn’t help that Phil is now 40.

So it’s not unreasonable to think that this is now the start of a new era in golf. Tiger and Phil still have good years left in them on tour, and will still be major factors for at least the next few years. But this is the time for new stars to come into their own.

Well guess what? We almost had a player with a chance to do that in the final round at Whistling Straits. But instead of getting that, golf fans have had to witness a player losing a chance at his first-ever major championship over an extremely questionable ruling.

Golf is a game of rules. We all know that. And grounding your club in a bunker is one of the more straightforward rules in the game. That wasn’t the case here though. Instead of the usual questioning of whether a player grounded the club at all, we’ve had to turn our focus more on whether or not he was actually in a bunker.

And that’s a big problem. If it’s not obvious enough to the players and general public as to what is considered a bunker and what isn’t, then something is wrong. Because then you get a huge negative reaction to your tour and your questionable ruling. Again, the exactly opposite of what the game needs right now.

I’m not saying that Martin Kaymer winning hurt the face of the tour. He fits the definition of a young start trying to become the next big thing on tour. And had he won the tournament outright in a three-way playoff with Johnson and Bubba Watson, we’d be talking about the great future that he has ahead of him right now. Instead, we’re discussing one player’s losing the tournament being a much, much bigger story than one player’s winning the tournament.

In a time where the PGA Tour may have to start turning the page, and start looking to the possibilities and uncertainties for the future, you don’t need questionable ruling interpretations overshadowing those players that could be the future.

I know, I know. Dustin Johnson and his caddy should have known. Johnson should have read the rules sheet, and understood the consequences if he did indeed ground the club in one of these waste areas that would actually be considered bunkers. But then again, you have to ask this question. Where was the rules official that’s suppose to be following this group? In an odd situation such as the one that occurred, you would think that he would have offered a little advice to the guy that was leading the golf tournament. You would think.

There’s no doubt that things are a changing on tour. The 2010 PGA Championship was a chance for the golfing world to focus on the birth of a new star. Well, we saw a young player win a major. Unfortunately, it’s not gonna have the lasting effect that it should because of one mistake over a great four days of golf.

So I guess the question is, whose mistake was it? That’s certainly debatable.

But there’s one thing that isn’t debatable. Regardless of who was right or wrong, this was not the ending that the tour needed in a time of great uncertainty.

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