Johnson needs to learn to lose with some grace

What a week for golf fans! The 115th U.S. Open at Chambers Bay sure didn’t disappoint. Or did it? I’m still undecided, but I do know the possible takeaway conversations from last week are endless.

Tiger looked really bad. The course layout itself. The condition of the greens. Gary Player’s comments. Fox’s terrible (my opinion) coverage. And of course, the finish!

By this point, we all know Jordan Spieth won the tournament and is rewriting the record books. And we all know Dustin Johnson (my pick the week before to win) lost the tournament when he went from victory to defeat with a three-putt from 12 feet on the last hole of the championship.

And this is where I’ll pick up my topic for the week.

I have played competitive golf for a very long time. I’ve had my fair share of victories on multiple levels. And I’ve experienced the agonizing defeat that comes with losing a close tournament down the stretch. I remember how hurt I was on several occasions. So I can only imagine what Johnson felt like after losing the U.S. Open on the last hole.

But unlike some of the commentators after the event, I cannot excuse his absence from the awards ceremony following play. I’m sure it’s happened before, but in all of my time watching golf tournaments I can’t remember seeing an empty chair on the 18th green with the “runner-up” sign on it, waiting for a heartbroken player who never shows up.

Quite simply, I think it’s unacceptable.

Jack Nicklaus won 18 majors, a feat that once again looks like it will never be broken. It’s an amazing record. But Nicklaus also had 19 second-place finishes. Think about that. The greatest golfer of all time LOST 19 majors to one person. Do you think Nicklaus ever skipped an awards ceremony?

One of his more gut-wrenching (and possibly most famous) defeats came at the 1977 British Open at Turnberry. The “Duel in the Sun” ended with Tom Watson making a birdie putt on the last hole to beat Jack by one. Watson himself has always described the moment after making that putt as one of the most touching of his life.

Watson’s quote from a previous article stated: “As we walked off Jack grabbed me by the neck and darn near broke it. He said, ‘Tom, I gave it my best shot, but it wasn’t good enough. Congratulations. I’m proud of you.’ That’s Jack in defeat. He always gives credit and he does it with a genuine grace.”

Those are the stories that make golf what it is.

As I type, I’m trying to think of a few other more recent displays of sportsmanship.

Greg Norman’s hug with Nick Faldo on the final green at the 1996 Masters comes to mind.

Kenny Perry’s comments after losing the Masters in 2009 come to mind.

And Angel Cabrerra’s “thumb’s up” to Adam Scott during the playoff at The Masters in 2013 comes to mind.

And although it’s outside of golf, I still think the greatest display of sportsmanship I may have ever seen during competition came last year when Michigan’s Devin Gardner consoled Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett as he lay injured on the field during the most recent edition of The Game.

These are moments that make sports what they are. Moments when — even in defeat — individuals raised the overall respect level of themselves and their sport.

I can’t imagine what Johnson felt like after three putting our national championship away last week. I like Johnson. And I think he’ll come back and win again very soon. But I also can’t let his absence at the awards ceremony go without calling him out.

Golf’s standard bearers of generations gone by have set the bar too high to simply let the incredibly wealthy and spoiled golfers of today walk right under it without even so much as a stern scolding in the local paper.

Jonah Karzmer is a former golf professional who writes a Sunday golf column for The Vindicator. In his spare time he sells commercial insurance and loves getting feedback on his weekly columns via email at Jonah@thekarzmerinsurance.com