Dustin Johnson’s famous bunker has been covered up for the 2015 US PGA Championship

Dustin Johnson won’t have to worry about that bunker at Whistling Straits. It’s been covered up by a corporate tent.

Geoff Shackelford has filed a great piece for The Loop detailing that the most famous bunker at Whistling Straits is partly covered up for the 2015 US PGA Championship with a PGA of America corporate tent.

While crime scenes are routinely reconstructed to help us forget what happened there, this is just professional golf. Considering how well Johnson handled the entire unfortunate mishap, it’s not like someone died here. Just one player’s first-major hopes.

With the placement of a huge tented village where longer players were hitting drives in the 2010 PGA, the shift does not portend well for keeping the highest (and often loudest) fans far enough away from the action.

If you can’t recall the drama of the 2010 US PGA Championship, here it what happened.

Dustin Johnson made bogey on the 72nd hole at Whistling Straits, home to just over 1000 bunkers. It was enough though to get him to 11-under par for the week and a berth in the playoff with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson. However rules officials took a look at his approach shot on the 18th hole and it was deemed that he should take a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker.

While the US PGA stuck up signs everywhere that week to let all players know that all bunkers were in play and were to be played as bunkers, the ruling seemed particularly harsh on Johnson. The ‘bunker’ was trampled under the feet of spectators all week and as David Feherty points out in the post-round video below – it looked more like a manger than a bunker.

Not to mention many spectators were standing in it to catch a glimpse of the action.

Martin Kaymer went on to beat Bubba Watson in the playoff but the tournament is most remembered for the drama surrounding Johnson and the bunker on the 18th hole. Bunkergate.

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