Vincent Johnson surely won’t forget the fifth hole at Riviera Country Club, where he took a two-stroke penalty. While Johnson was in the middle of his swing, the ball moved, which is a one-stroke penalty. Johnson wasn’t sure it had moved. He said his head and eyes were coming back on the line he was trying to play. Johnson then had a conversation with playing partner Bryce Molder, who didn’t think the ball moved either. Johnson should’ve called over a rules official to double check, but he continued and hit the shot. Since the ball had moved, he then hit from the wrong place. When he got to the seventh tee, he was met by a rules official, who told him he was assessed a two-stroke penalty. Johnson was 2-under before the penalty and was in line to make the cut. However, Johnson shot a 74 Friday and was three shots off the cut line. So even if he didn’t have the two-stroke penalty, he would’ve missed the cut by one.
“I think the toughest thing, the game of golf, you want to play with integrity and everything,” Johnson said. “And I take that very seriously. I by no means wanted to you know, try to get an edge on anything. That was probably the biggest thing. You know, the fact that I got the penalty, I’m glad that they got it right.”
