Tiger Woods rips ‘awful’ USGA rules fiasco, offers no timetable for return

The USGA can be thankful that Dustin Johnson, and not Tiger Woods, was the object of its botched rules decision during Sunday’s finale of the U.S. Open.

Because while DJ listened to officials tell him on the 12th tee that he may be docked a stroke for what happened on the fifth green and played through it, Tiger would likely have let them and the viewing audience know exactly how ticked off he was by the entire fiasco.

“I’m a little bit feistier than Dustin,” Woods said with a laugh Wednesday, “so I probably would have said a few things during the round.”

Woods, who expounded as well on his eventual return to golf (who knows?) during a pre-Quicken Loans press conference, referred to the incident that started on the fifth green of DJ’s final round when his ball moved on the green after he placed his putter behind it. The on-site rules official determined the player had not caused the movement so did not assess him a one-stroke penalty, leading Johnson to believe he made a par-4 there.

The kerfuffle began in full when other officials told Johnson on the 12th tee that video indicated he may face a penalty after all and they would make the big reveal following his round. Rory McIlroy tweeted that he would have stopped playing under such circumstances, but DJ, despite a few poor shots coming in on his way to a three-shot victory, seemed to take it all in stride.

It appeared that officials were calling Johnson a liar for contending he did not cause his ball to move — a situation that should have been cleared up when the official accompanying Johnson’s party declined to penalize the golfer. The golf world was outraged, and several high-profile current and former players, including Woods, took to Twitter to express their outrage.

Monday night, Woods called the situation “awful,” and the USGA admitted it blew the call. In addition to an official USGA apology for the timing but not the outcome, executive director Mike Davis appeared on Golf Channel to ask for a “mulligan” on his organization’s actions at Oakmont.

Wednesday, Woods expanded on his displeasure with how the whole thing went down.

”It was awful because no one knew what was going on. DJ didn’t know how he stood, the rest of the guys who were ahead of him ... the final group didn’t know what was going on. No one had a clue.

“‘Am I tied for the lead, am I leading the tournament? Am I one back or am I tied,’” he said, explaining that such issues determine strategies about whether players would be aggressive or play conservatively. “It was frustrating to watch how it was handled because that championship being our national title ... deserved a better handling of the situation.”

Tiger believed, as did many observers, that the on-course rules official had the final say.

“I thought it was binding, his decision, and whatever he decides, that’s what he decides,” Woods said. “Sometimes you call in a second rules official for a second explanation and that ruling is binding. I just didn’t understand how they could say that ‘we’re going to take you in ... We may or may not assess you a penalty, you still have six holes to go but who knows who’s leading the U.S. Open?’

“I just didn’t see how that was appropriate,” said Woods, who said the affair was unfair to Johnson as well as the rest of the field.

Woods essentially blamed the USGA for the poor play down the stretch of 54-hole leader Shane Lowry and other contenders.

“Not just Dustin, but the other players that had a chance to win the tournament, these guys didn’t understand how they stood,” he said. “I just saw that guys were making a lot of mistakes coming in because ... it became such an unnerving situation.

“I didn’t think it was fair to anybody,” he added. “It wasn’t fair to Dustin, it wasn’t fair to other players who had a chance.”

While Woods and the golf world will be stewing about The Decision for years, the question of if or when the 14-time major champion makes it back to competition could drag out almost as long.

Still rehabbing from two back surgeries after his last competitive round in August at the Wyndham Championship, the former world No. 1 reiterated what he has been saying for months — that he’s progressing, getting stronger, but that there’s no timetable for a return to the PGA Tour.

He did confirm that he has played 18-hole rounds, some of them on consecutive days, that he had recovered some of the speed in his swing and was able to participate in his kids’ soccer games.

Despite getting stronger, however, Woods was “sore” after such exercises and was not able to play and practice as much as he must before getting back out there with the guys.

“It’s about trying to recover for the next day,” he said. “I just need to still get in, I guess, more golf shape and try to hit more golf balls.

“I’m still working on it,” said Woods. “I’m still progressing. I just wish I could be here and play, and be out here and get it going again. I just miss playing.”