Lee Westwood, who played alongside eventual champion Dustin Johnson during the controversial final round of the U.S. Open on June 19, called the communication "ridiculous" and the situation after the round "odd" in an interview with GolfDigest.com that was published Monday.
"The whole thing was handled very badly," Westwood told GolfDigest.com. "I don't think anyone should be treated the way Dustin was. A ruling was made on the fifth green, and that should have been it, cut and dried.
"He certainly should never have been asked to play the last six holes of the U.S. Open without knowing what the score was. I was thinking going down the 12th, 'Does Shane Lowry in the next group know where he stands?' It was ridiculous."
The initial decision on the fifth green by a rules official walking with the Johnson-Westwood pairing deemed no rule had been broken when Johnson's ball moved slightly as he addressed it. On the 12th hole, a U.S. Golf Association rules official told Johnson that the situation on the fifth hole would be reviewed after the round and a one-shot penalty might be applied at the completion of play.
Officials indeed decided to apply a one-shot penalty, but it had no real effect on the final result, just reducing Johnson's margin of victory from four shots to three.
Westwood also told the website that he didn't think his or Johnson's opinions seemed to matter much to the officials making the decision about whether to apply a penalty. And Westwood had to ask to be part of the discussion with rules officials at the end of play, even though he was marking Johnson's scorecard for the round.
"We were only in there (the scoring hut) maybe two minutes," Westwood said. "I could tell when I went in that they had made up their minds that it was going to be a penalty. They weren't particularly interested in anything Dustin or I had to say.
"At that [point], Dustin said, 'OK, whatever. Let's just get on with the prize presentation.' Thankfully, it didn't matter to the result. I'm not sure what they would have done if it had mattered. I'm just pleased it didn't."
Westwood acknowledged that he had seen Johnson's golf ball move slightly on the fifth green, noticing that the line on the ball wasn't in the same position as it had been when Johnson started his pre-shot routine. The Englishman also told the website that before he could say anything, Johnson raised the issue first with those in his group. But he also didn't believe Johnson was to blame for the movement.
At the end of the day, after starting the final round tied for fourth, Westwood shot 80 and ended up in a share of 32nd.