Congrats, Brooks Koepka, on his 2nd straight US Open win! He played very tough in the final round and minimized damage when tee shots and 2nd shots weren’t good. He made two clutch 5-10 foot par putts on the backside. He bogeyed 18 after a terrible 2nd shot to beat Tommy Fleetwood, who finished 3 hours earlier with a low US Open round record tying 63, by one. Patrick Reed, the Masters winner, had at one time today been -5 for the round and tied for the lead at -1, but he later fell back to finish 3 back. DJ had been at least tied for the lead at the end of each of the 1st 3 rounds, but he fell back today though he still finished just 2 back in 3rd.
Side note: Phil Mickelson, due to frustration about the very difficult greens in the 3rd round, very uncharacteristically intentionally hit his ball while it was still moving after a missed putt. He got penalized 2. I’ve always admired Phil for his great demeanor (so much better than Tiger, for example) in addition to exceptional skills around the green for ~25 years. So, whereas I don’t at all condone his doing this, I’d prefer it not be dwelled on by the media as Phil just had a bad day and snapped despite doing so much good for the game. However, I am a bit concerned about onething. What’s to stop someone else from intentionally swatting at a ball headed for the water, say, like on one of the Masters back nine holes? I’m wondering if Phil, as much as I still like him, should have been DQed to avoid setting precedent. Opinions?
" … What’s to stop someone else from intentionally swatting at a ball headed for the water,"
Not much benefit if the penalty is -2 as opposed to a dropped ball.
"Not much benefit if the penalty is -2 as opposed to a dropped ball."
Carl,
Thanks for your reply. "Not much" is not the same thing as "no" or "there can't be situations where it is advantageous". I'm really worried about setting a precedent. For argument'd sake. I'll accept that the vast majority of the time there's no advantage to doing it. Let's say it is about a wash in many situations like when the ball is headed toward water. Do we want players to start doing this more and more simply out of frustration or to make a statement, especially if it is headed to water and the 2 stroke penalty likely wouldn't hurt? An intentional strike on a moving ball has no place in this great game of golf imo. That's why I favor a DQ.