SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. _ Just about everyone was still talking Sunday about Phil Mickelson slapping back a runaway putt the day before. Everyone but Mickelson, that is.
He spent a half hour after his round with Rickie Fowler working the rope line, signing autographs for fans and posing for selfies, but skipped talking to reporters, walking briskly to the players' hospitality tent, flanked by handlers and local police. He did make a couple of comments as he walked.
"I had a good time," he said, his round of 69 a dozen shots better than the day before. "Rickie played great. I played better (than Saturday). It was a good day."
The U.S. Golf Association, meanwhile, felt compelled to further clarify its ruling from Saturday, defending its decision to assess Mickelson a two-stroke penalty on the play instead of disqualifying him from the tournament. It was at least the third such clarification in a 24-hour period.
In a written statement, the USGA said Mickelson's infraction was not a violation of rule 1-2, which can result in disqualification because he "made a stroke at the ball" as opposed to "another act to deflect or stop the ball in motion." In other words, according to the USGA, had he simply stopped the ball as it was rolling off the green, he would have been subject to disqualification.
Fowler, for one, did not have an issue with the decision.
"I think it should be almost the same as taking the unplayable in a way," Fowler said, citing a rule that includes a one-stroke penalty. "If you're able to take an unplayable in any situation, really, and put it back to where you hit it before, I don't think it's any breach of etiquette or anything like that."
Asked if he's ever considered hitting a ball out of frustration while it's still moving, Fowler said: "I think more so the times when you're playing with your buddies, and you just want to slap it away as far as you can possibly hit it."
