Jack Nicklaus Defends D.J., Scolds The U.S.G.A.

There is no one taking sides with the U.S.G.A. and now the biggest name in golf has hammered them for what transpired on Sunday at the U.S. Open.

Jack Nicklaus was on site to present the gold medal to the winner, Dustin Johnson. The USGA has named it the “Jack Nicklaus Medal” and after the way the USGA botched things up during the final round, Nicklaus gave the organization a gold medal scolding.

Here’s what the holder of 18 major championships said:

“In my opinion golf is a game of honor. That’s what the USGA believes in and that’s what most of the players believe in. And when you have a situation where the official was there and said, ‘Did you cause it to move?’ and he says ‘No’ then that should be the end of the story.  How’s he (Johnson) supposed to know what caused it to move? You’ve got greens out there with spike marks and pitches (ball marks). The ball can move at any time. You either have a penalty or you don’t have one. I think it’s very unfair to the player.”

Jack was not alone. Tiger Woods referred to it as “a farce.”

Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler all took turns ripping the USGA on Twitter.

Brandel Chamblee of the Golf Channel took Jeff Hall and Thomas Pagel to task face-to-face, challenging them and they never answered his question:  “Have you ever seen a practice putting stroke move a golf ball, when it didn’t hit the golf ball? Ever?”

Fact is, NO ONE has taken up with the USGA on this fiasco.

Not even the ever-diplomatic Jack Nicklaus.