The biggest story to come from the U.S. Open on Sunday, thankfully, is the story that wasn’t. At the end of the day, Dustin Johnson raised the trophy as the national champion, erasing years of “could have been” from his major past. However, thanks to some awful handling of an already-questionable rules situation, the USGA nearly sidetracked the entire thing and they’re going to have plenty of questions to answer over the next year.

When it comes to the greens at Oakmont Country Club this week, “fast” just isn’t enough to describe what we saw. Despite three inches of rain falling on Thursday, players battled through four rounds of golf with putting surfaces that might be better compared to the rink at the nearby Consol Energy Center, home of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Considering the prodigious power of players like Johnson, Bubba Watson and Jason Day, golf’s organizing bodies have realized that there are only two ways to combat what would be rapidly-lowering scores. They can either lengthen courses to what would likely near 8,000 yards — which would make them completely unplayable for regular golfers — or roll greens to the point where you can hardly set a ball down without it moving.

This brings us to Sunday. As Johnson was lining up a putt on the fifth green, he took two short practice strokes next to the ball, soling his putter twice. As he moved the putter behind the ball (without soling it, notably), the ball rotated backwards about the width of a single dimple. Then things got interesting.

Johnson immediately notified the roving rules official assigned to his group, who determined that Johnson should play the ball as it lie. Johnson putted out, and moved on with his round. On the 12th tee — a full six holes later, somewhere north of an hour in real time — Jeff Hall, a USGA managing director of Rules and Competition, decided to approach Johnson to discuss the incident.

According to Hall, he and the Rules Committee “were concerned by what [they] saw”, and elected to communicate that concern to Johnson after they had time to review the video replay. He also stated that Johnson disagreed that he had caused the movement, as he hadn’t yet addressed the ball, and had merely taken practice strokes near the ball.

So the Rules Committee, in their infinite wisdom, chose the absolute worst course of action possible. With the lead of the U.S. Open hanging in the balance, they … wanted to meet with DJ after the round?

Really?

For the final two hours of the tournament, nobody watching — or playing, really — knew what was happening. Was Johnson actually leading? What would happen if he finished the tournament with a single shot lead, or worse, tied? Social media lit up almost instantly, and some of the game’s biggest stars let loose on the USGA for their wishy-washy actions.

This is ridiculous… No penalty whatsoever for DJ. Let the guy play without this crap in his head. Amateur hour from @USGA

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) June 19, 2016

This isn’t right for anyone on that golf course. If it was me I wouldn’t hit another shot until this farce was rectified.

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) June 19, 2016

Lemme get this straight.. DJ doesn’t address it. It’s ruled that he didn’t cause it to move. Now you tell him he may have? Now? This a joke?

— Jordan Spieth (@JordanSpieth) June 19, 2016

.@JordanSpieth @McIlroyRory w/ you boys! The fact that the @usga thinks that DJ caused the ball to move is completely ridiculous! Laughable!

— Rickie Fowler (@RickieFowler) June 19, 2016

Hey @USGA, it’s impossible for DJ to cause the ball to move backwards!!!!!!! #commonsense

— Brandt Snedeker (@BrandtSnedeker) June 19, 2016

Sure, these guys are friends, but they’re also competitors who recognize what the situation was better than anybody. As bad as they felt a penalty stroke would be, the fact that they let Johnson and everybody else play without knowing what the ruling would be made it a thousand times worse. Tiger Woods called it a “farce”, and even Jack Nicklaus congratulated the winner for overcoming “all that crap they threw at you.”

The USGA is in charge of growing the game, and not only did they probably turn off hundreds of prospective future players, but they could have changed the entire outcome of a major championship. Good thing Johnson took that call out of their hands in the end.