I hereby decree Dustin Johnson to be the coolest cat in professional golf.
By “cool,” I mean unruffible — yeah, that’s a made-up word. I’m about to define it for you.
It’s the word that describes how a pro golfer could get, um, ruffled with the knowledge that — while he’s leading a major golf event — he might be assessed a one-stroke penalty at the end of the final round.
Yesterday, Johnson stood over a putt on the fifth hole of the U.S. Open championship in Oakmont, Pa. He moved his club and the ball moved, as in ever so slightly away from the hole. The U.S. Golf Association — which governs the U.S. Open event — decided to delay determining whether Johnson created the movement.
It would wait until the round ended. Then it would decide whether to levy the penalty. The delayed decision caused the Fox Sports announcers to wonder aloud why the USGA had to wait. It was, they noted, a most unusual circumstance facing the golfers in or near the lead.
Indeed, much of the commentary this morning has centered on the farcical nature of the bumblers among the USGA brass.
Johnson played most of the back nine holes of the championship a shot in the lead. Which meant that if he won the event by a single shot, he could be given the penalty and then would have to play another round of golf the next day with the second-place finishers — three of them tied for second — to determine the winner.
How would you like to play for a major professional golf championship knowing that you could lose it all because some golf gurus decided at the end of the round that you deserved to penalized?
Johnson was — yes, that’s right — unruffled by it all.
He then went out and played the final three holes like a champ. He ended up with a four-stroke lead at the end of it.
Oh, yeah. The USGA did levy the penalty, meaning that Johnson would win his first major title by three strokes.
Dude, you are one cool customer.
