HAVEN, Wis. — The notorious Dustin Johnson bunker at Whistling Straits is gone. The rule that made the bunker famous five years ago remains.
On the 72nd hole at the 2010 P.G.A. Championship, Johnson was assessed a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club twice in a sandy hollow far from the 18th fairway as he prepared to hit a shot. It was a controversial decision that kept Johnson from a playoff and denied him the chance to win his first major championship.
An obscure rule that week declared the nearly 1,000 sandy areas at the dune-dominated Whistling Straits — even those beyond the gallery ropes where fans had been standing or sitting — to be bunkers that must be treated as hazards.