Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy crush USGA over Dustin Johnson violation review

On the fifth hole of his final round at the US Open, Dustin Johnson stood over a par putt and slid his putter behind his stationary golf ball, a few feet away from the hole.

Johnson moved his club away from the ball, and the ball appeared to move very slightly, though Johnson wasn’t penalized for it at the time and it wasn’t clear that Johnson had addressed his ball or done anything worthy of a stroke being added to his score. Johnson made the putt and proceeded about the golf course.

Later in his round, while Johnson stood on the 12th tee, a USGA rules official visited with Johnson and apparently informed him that the USGA was considering adding a stroke to his score over the incident. Never mind that Johnson, leading by two strokes in the national championship, could use to have certainty over his score.

Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy both unleashed Twitter missives against the USGA:

Rickie Fowler and and other players chimed in, too:

McIlroy, later, went in even more:

The USGA’s uncertainty on this could throw the field into chaos as the best players in the world head toward the 18th hole, because nobody knows if Johnson’s score is true or one shot better than it’ll eventually be carded. That’s a problem.