Dustin Johnson getting penalized for grounding his club at the PGA Championship last week still has people upset.

Dustin Johnson blew the 2010 PGA Championship due to grounding his club in a bunker.

From The Daily Commercial

Similarly, most golf writers produced next-day pieces that described the rules of golf as sacrosanct. After all, rules were rules. In this case, they’d been around since shortly after that first itinerant shepherd picked up a stick and hit a rock (or whatever it was) as far as he could toward a rabbit hole in the pasture. There’d be no pity taken on Dustin Johnson. The man grounded his club in a hazard and that was that.

Except that it’s all a bunch of baloney!

It’s idiotic to suggest that intent has nothing to do with rules.

Virtually every sport has exceptions to its rules of play based, basically, on the concept of fairness. In the NFL, a disputed fair catch takes place only when officials gather to decide the receiver’s intention. Was his casual wave at shoulder height enough to convince onrushing defenders that he meant to catch the ball and stop right there? The operative principal is fairness. He’d receive a competitive advantage if he “faked” the signal, then rushed through a defense that had eased up a bit.

Original Photos Yahoo, Amazon

Corey Pavin exchanged words with Golf Channel reporter and LeBron James stooge, Jim Gray.

Corey Pavin spent a lot of time checking his Twitter account while on the course after he feuded with Jim Gray.

From SI.com

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin had a heated exchange with Golf Channel reporter Jim Gray after Pavin insisted that Gray misquoted him about Tiger Woods’ prospects for making the team. Standing nose-to-nose with Pavin in front of a group of media members, Gray called him a liar and said, “You’re going down.” The Tour pro responded, “You’re full of it.” At one point Gray started to walk away, prompting Pavin to say, “You’re just going to walk off?” Gray then returned to face Pavin and the men continued jawing at each other in raised voices.

Original Photos Yahoo, mobiles.co.uk

Tiger Woods is struggling through the worst stretch of his career.

Most golf observers think that Tiger Woods looks different this year.

From The NY Times

Woods is living out the worst performance nightmare of his career, wandering around lost, in public. Very much in public. One of the greatest athletes of our time is suddenly in need of a total reboot.

After Woods played the worst tournament of his career last weekend, I began to wonder: has any great athlete, at the top of any sport, ever had his or her game blown to smithereens so fast — not just from age, not just from injury, but pretty obviously from some deeper miasma of psyche and soma.

Original Photos Yahoo, lakers-fan.com

The wind was the big story on the second day of the 2010 British Open.

The 2010 British Open saw play halted due to high winds, but after an hour they cleaned up the bodies and resumed play (katchop)

From The Washington Post

Wind is an inescapable part of the British Open at St. Andrews, and so is luck when it comes to morning and afternoon tee times. The trick for the contenders was to not get too upset about it. Those who fared best in the gusts of 35 to 40 miles per hour were those who didn’t let the bluster completely rob them of their composure, those who were content just to survive and not shoot themselves out of it.

Original Photos Yahoo, WREX

Tiger Woods shot a 67 in the opening round of the 2010 British Open, and was stalked by women.

Tiger Woods walks off the 18th green and prepares to spend some time with his fans (katchop)

From The Scottish Sun

Tiger Woods began his quest for The Open title at St Andrews amid scenes of chaos and lunacy never before seen at the famous course.

Dozens of photographers, TV cameramen and reporters pushed and jostled each other to get the best view of the world’s No1 golfer - and love cheat.

And five stunning blonde models - hired by a bookies chain - turned up in tiger-print T-shirts in a bid to attract his eye.

One of the sexy cubs purred: “We haven’t been able to keep our eyes off the Tiger!”

Original Photos Yahoo, Amazon

The 2010 British Open marks the 28th time it’s taken place at St. Andrews.

John Daly and Tiger Woods pal around at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland (katchop)

From The NY Times

How has this relatively flat, not very long (7,377 yards) par-72 course, which has been tweaked but never had a major redesign, been able to withstand the tests of time and more than a century’s worth of advances in talent and technology?  It helps to have 112 strategically placed bunkers, the vagaries of Scottish weather and huge greens with undulations subtle and overt that form a last line of defense.

Original Photos Yahoo, French

The Knicks signed Amare Stoudemire to a max contract on Monday.

The New York Knicks used a big chunk of change to lure Amare Stoudemire to Madison Square Garden (katchop)

From ESPN

But you do know what Amare Stoudemire is, right?

A hell of a catch for the New York Knicks.

In fact, if Stoudemire can convince James or Wade to join him, he will represent the smartest signing the Knicks have ever made.

This isn’t the time to focus on what or who Stoudemire is not. If he fails to stay healthy, or if he fails to shape a consistent contender without a quarterback named Steve Nash throwing him spirals, Stoudemire will get what’s coming to him from the Madison Square Garden crowd.

That’s fine. Stoudemire wouldn’t be the first big-name, bigger-money ballplayer jeered out of New York, and he sure wouldn’t be the last.

Only this much is certain for now: Stoudemire is the Knicks’ best player since Patrick Ewing, better than Allan Houston and LJ and Spree, even if every New Yorker — the new power forward included — hopes Amare surrenders that title by the end of the week.

Original Photos solecollector, zimbio

The 2010 US Open gets underway at  Pebble Beach today.

At the 2010 US Open in Pebble Beach, Tiger Woods is doing his best to ignore all the distractions and just focus on golf (katchop)

From ESPN

As at Quail Hollow, he might play poorly and MC once again. Or as he did 10 years ago, he might completely get into the zone and win it all. (But not by 15. That was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.) Anyone who says they know where TW will finish is purely guessing — and it’s not a very educated guess, either.

I’ll make a guess, too: Woods will continue improving, but his game right now isn’t where it needs to be in order to win this tournament. He’ll be playing Sunday and might even find his name on the leaderboard, but it’s tough to imagine Tiger clutching the trophy when it’s all over.

Original Photos Yahoo, hoax-slayer