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Dustin Johnson taken to task for constant spitting at BMW Championship
US PGA TOUR
Dustin Johnson has gotten spit-roasted in the wake of his victory in the BMW Championship on Sunday for his incessant spitting on the golf course.
James Corrigan of the Telegraph on Wednesday expressed his disgust with Johnson’s habit, a column that got picked up by a New Zealand website.
“After Sunday’s gobsmacking and gob-emptying performance in Indiana, the world No 2’s reputation as the game’s biggest hitter is in danger of being updated to ‘biggest spitter’ as well,” he wrote.
“It is a shame that so many viewers’ enjoyment of the latest Johnson masterclass was marred by a feeling of disgust, as the languid American repeatedly expectorated.”
ESPN soccer analyst Craig Burley apparently was watching the final round of the BMW Championship on Sunday and Tweeted this:
It is not a new issue on Twitter, either. The first mentions date to February, 2010.
Oddly, virtually all the disgust expressed emanates from overseas. Are American viewers inured to spitting via baseball players and their spitting habits, or is it that foreign broadcasters tend to talk about it more their U.S. counterparts?
Note these Tweets, among several that mention Sky Sports:
However, Sports Illustrated’s Michael Bamberger noted it in his story on Johnson from the U.S. Open at Oakmont: “Johnson, chewing Skoal Apple Long Cut all through his round and spitting tobacco juice on the fabled links…”
Johnson, too, is only the latest to be chastised for spitting. Among predecessors are Tiger Woods (who was fined by the European Tour for spitting during the Dubai Desert Classic in 2011), Keegan Bradley and Sergio Garcia for spitting into the cup.
Still, hard to take issue with Corrigan's take, that "Johnson is not the first but he is...the worst."