OAKMONT, Pa. — Reflecting on the 2016 U.S. Open while reviewing the Rules of Golf with our lawyers.

Over the next few years, the U.S. Golf Association will endeavor to further simplify the Rules of Golf in the hope of making them more accessible and understandable to the average person.

First, good luck with that.

Second, we’re fairly certain there’s one they’ll look at: 18-2/0.5.

That’s the rule that caused such a furor and a blow up on social media among PGA Tour players on Sunday when Dustin Johnson was penalized for unintentionally causing his ball to move ever so slightly on the fifth green in the final round at Oakmont Country Club.

The rule basically states that if a player causes his ball to move, intentionally or not, it’s a penalty. It got tricky and contentious when Johnson immediately had a discussion with a rules official and said he didn’t think he caused the ball to move.

It took six full holes for the USGA to review video and inform Johnson that he might be penalized at the end of the round. We’ll get to why many out there viewed that as “amateur hour” by the USGA, but there is the nature of the rule itself. It’s ridiculous.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Monday that the USGA said it regrets the distraction caused to Johnson and the rest of the field.

The reason golf is seen as so fussy by the average person is rules such as this. Major championships should not hinge on something that is not a competitive action by a player. Johnson had no intent to move the ball. He set his putter down a couple of times next to the ball, took a practice stroke, lifted his putter and the ball moved.

It is highly probable – as Jack Nicklaus and others pointed out – that the ball moved because Oakmont’s greens were cut to the speed of your granite kitchen counter and Johnson pressing his putter on the green caused the ball to move. That’s what the USGA determined happened, though officials said Sunday night that they only have to be 51 percent certain that’s the case.

“We understand not everyone is going to agree with that,” said Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s senior director rules. “But the standard is not 100 percent. It’s ‘more likely than not.’ ”

How was the ball movement Johnson’s fault, and more to the point, how does that possibly affect the competition? What possible advantage did he gain? None.

Intent or not, if the ball moved, have him replace it and play on. No penalty.

In all of golf’s rules, shouldn’t intent be the determining factor? Certainly for a championship that determines golfers’ lifetime legacies.

To be fair to the USGA, it was handcuffed by its own rules on Sunday. As soon as officials believed that Johnson caused the ball to move, they felt compelled to act.

“If you don’t act on the evidence you have, I think it could be detrimental to the game,” Pagel said.

That’s where the day took a turn into the bizarre. USGA Managing Director Jeff Hall was on the course when he got a call from a staffer who had seen the video replay. He hustled back to the clubhouse to watch the video with Pagel.

They saw enough in the video to think it was likely that Johnson caused the ball to move, and they caught up to him on the 12th tee. Hall said they asked if there was any other reason the ball could have moved, and Johnson didn’t’ budge.

The USGA could have resolved it. They could have said, “Thanks for your explanation, but we’re giving you a penalty.” It was likely they were going to do so after the round, so why not buck up and tell him then? Let him and all of the other players in the field know where he stood on the leaderboard and move on.

The rancor came with the uncertainty, and it became the focus of the entire tournament for the last couple of hours.

“With the Rules of Golf,” Hall said, “it’s about getting it right, and there are times when a decision has to be made, and some will agree with it, and some will not.”

Put us down in this camp: fix the rules.