Sips of Maginnes: Year of near misses for America's best

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Dustin Johnson and Nick Watney were among the Americans who came close at the PGA Championship.

KOHLER, Wis. -- Dustin Johnson was handed the most unfortunate situation in a major championship since the "what-a-stupid-I-am" 1968 Masters where Roberto De Vicenzo signed an incorrect score card. But Dustin handled the situation with the class of a man twice his age. After suffering the ultimate in professional disappointments he didn't point the finger. The bunkering at Whistling Straits certainly isn't as clear cut as it is at other venues. You might even say that it isn't black and white. But the kid handled it with his head held high.

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• While I could easily spend the rest of my spaces here focusing on the negativity of the week, there was simply too much good to ignore. For the third major championship in a row U.S. golf fans were introduced to international talent that is just a step ahead of our young guns. But the margin isn't as great as the results of the 2010 major championships might indicate. Consider this the year of missed opportunities for America's best. As they have been saying in Green Bay since Brett Favre left -- "wait till next year."

• If Pete Dye hadn't found an outlet as a course designer there is a pretty good chance that he would have been a serial killer. The same type of diabolical imagination that has made Steven King's thrillers bestsellers makes Pete Dye's golf course designs terrorizing. Pete gets into a player's head, damages his psyche and forces him to question his conviction. Whistling Straits is Pete Dye's "The Shining" where "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

• Any description of Herb Kohler falls short of capturing the size of his personality, physical presence and most importantly his impact on his community and the game of golf. There are a handful of people at golf tournaments every year who can walk unencumbered without a credential around their neck. Jack does it, so does Arnie. President George H.W. Bush needs no credential when he shows up, either. Add Kohler's name to that list. From his distinctive appearance to his magnanimous presence it is apparent even to the most type-A volunteer that you don't mess with him.

Kohler came to the game of golf late in life, but true to his personality, when he arrived, he arrived in style. He opened the Blackwolf Run Resort and found out immediately that he had underestimated his vision. Tee times were booked three months in advance so he went looking for a piece of property to build yet another course. He bought a two-mile stretch of waterfront property from a utility company and set Dye to work on Whistling Straits. There may be another golf course like Whistling Straits somewhere, but I am pretty sure it is not on this planet.

• There are spots on Whistling Straits where even the best players can look stupid. Steve Stricker found one of those spots left of the 17th green on Friday when his ball settled in a greenside bunker that appeared several stories below the putting surface. Much to the dismay of the home crowd, the No. 4 player in the Official World Golf Ranking made a triple bogey and knocked himself out of contention. On Saturday Englishman Rhys Davies found his own treachery in the sand on No. 18 as his approach landed in one of the pot bunkers 30 yards from the green. A massive swing from Rhys sent the ball screaming into the face of the bunker a few feet in front of him. Amazingly -- and with an entourage searching -- his ball could not be found. In the end it was an 8 for Rhys, which took him from 3 under to 1 over.

• Are there more silos on the highway between Milwaukee and Whistling Straits or more bunkers on the golf course once you get there? There are an estimated 1,200 bunkers on the golf course -- a number that seems equal to the number of pronunciations or should I say mispronunciations of the reigning British Open champion's last name. I say going forward we just call him Louis, which is pronounced Loooey.

• When Jason Dufner made the turn on Sunday afternoon just three shots off the pace he was getting little respect. CBS hadn't shown a single of his shots. We at Sirius XM didn't give him much love, either. But that paled in comparison to the "typo" on the manual score board to the right of the ninth green. The operator forgot the "n" in Dufner -- declaring the No. 91-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking "Dufer," which begs the question ... what does that make you and me?

• Steve Elkington finally made something other than a par on the front nine on Sunday. Through the first three rounds he had made 27 pars but he broke the string with a bogey on the third. Back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth hole followed as the 47-year-old turned in 35. For the week Elk made 33 pars, one bogey and two birdies on the opening nine at Whistling Straits.

• You have undoubtedly heard every possible opinion about the ruling on the 18th that cost Dustin Johnson a chance to the PGA Championship. What you don't know is that while the ruling was taking place a battalion of greenskeepers armed with rakes stormed the 18th fairway. The two dozen or so smoothers went to work on the bunkers on the left side of the fairway. From there they worked their way up to the green where they manicured the spots of sand surrounding the green. Not once did they so much as glance in the direction of the bunker 20 yards right of the fairway that cost Dustin the championship.

Former PGA TOUR player John Maginnes is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.