Martin Dempster: Dustin Johnson alone to blame for final-day sand storm

IT APPEARS that golf, of late, has attracted more than its fair share of uproarious tabloid-style headlines. A week ago the obituaries were being penned for Tiger Woods' career on the back of one particularly poor performance.

Now we've had figures involved with the game saying they're "ashamed and embarrassed to be a golfer" over the two-shot penalty handed to Dustin Johnson after grounding his club in sand playing the 72nd hole during a dramatic conclusion to the USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

The only person who should be "ashamed and embarrassed" over this is Johnson, the man who blew his chance to become a major champion because he stupidly didn't check the local rules on probably the one course in the world where that should have been next on his list after he'd registered for the event. "I only look at it (a rules sheet] if I have a reason to," said Johnson after becoming the centre of attention on Sunday night, "and I didn't see I had a reason to."

Whistling Straits is no ordinary golf course. What's more, there's a fair chance that Johnson would have known that, in the same event on the same course in 2004, Stuart Appleby was hit with a four-shot penalty when, just like Johnson, he mistakenly thought a bunker outside the ropes was 'out of play' due to the fact spectators had been walking through it. Appleby incurred a two-shot penalty for moving some twigs and another two-stroke penalty for grounding his club.

As a result of that incident, the PGA of America, the organisation that runs the final major of the season, went out of its way last week to let players know that, on a course which has an estimated 1200 bunkers, they would all be 'in play' for the event.

It was the No 1 item on that local rules sheet and, in a further effort to try and bring it to players' attention, notices specifically about that were put in prominent positions in the locker-room. For Johnson to claim he was ignorant of what he'd done wrong was an insult to his own intelligence.

The man who'd imploded at the US Open a few weeks earlier at Pebble Beach arrived at the 18th tee on Sunday needing a par-4 to make amends for that bitter disappointment. If only he'd been able to finish with a decent drive. Instead, he carved his tee shot to the right, deep into a huge crowd of spectators, many of whom were standing in some of those bunkers outside the ropes. Do that at most golf events on most courses and you'd be out on your ear. Not Whistling Straits, though.

The crux of this whole sorry episode is that the instant Johnson saw his ball was lying in sand the alarm bells should have started ringing. Everyone who plays golf has it drummed into them from an early age that the one thing you can't do in sand is ground your club.There are no excuses for Johnson forgetting that.

"The point is, golf has rules," said Herb Kohler, who owns Whistling Straits. "The values of golf have evolved from the rules of golf. And it's those values that are really quite precious."

I'm with Herb on this one and the people who reckon golf is in danger of losing its credibility in the public eye over an episode like this need to focus on Johnson here. Instead of claiming innocence, he's the guilty party and, sadly for the American, he has paid a heavy price for his ignorance of the rules.

He could, of course, have been given a helping hand by the referee with his match. Though not obliged to, David Price, who, apparently, is one of the leading rules instructors with the PGA of America, could have mentioned to Johnson that he was in a bunker and, therefore, would be unable to ground his club.

Thankfully, Johnson wasn't hit with his penalty after thinking he'd won the event and so it is nonsense for anyone to suggest that the subsequent play-off that saw Martin Kaymer beat Bubba Watson was an anti-climax. Kaymer's performance was magnificent and Watson, too, emerged from the event with enormous credit. The same, sadly, can't be said for Johnson, though, in fairness, he did handle himself well afterwards.

When Roberto de Vicenzo missed out on a play-off with Bob Goalby in the 1968 Masters due to the fact he signed for a 4 when he'd made 3 at the 71st hole, he emerged to deliver the famous line: "What a stupid I am." Johnson, in time, will surely echo that view.