Bryson DeChambeau was handed a two-stroke penalty following his second round at the Open Championship on Friday in Southport, England, after R&A rules officials determined he had taken actions to improve “the area of his intended swing” on a shot 13 holes earlier.
For a few hours, there was a legitimate question as to whether DeChambeau would continue playing the final major championship of the year. He declined to speak to reporters about his penalty, and his agent, Brett Falkoff, claimed he was “100 percent” serious when he appeared to tell rules officials he won’t be back for the third round.
At 12:02 a.m. local time, DeChambeau posted to social media and left no doubt about where he’d be Saturday.
“Obviously disappointed with the ruling,” he wrote. “I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is. This fires me up. Onto the weekend. Let’s get it.”
A popular but divisive figure in the world of golf, the LIV Golf star originally posted a 4-under 66 to move to 7 under, one shot behind Australia’s Lucas Herbert. Now, rather than waking up Saturday in second place and the final pairing for the third round, DeChambeau will enter the weekend three behind Herbert instead of one, his bogey 5 at the fifth hole changed to a triple-bogey 7.
The downgrade for DeChambeau altered Saturday pairings, pushing Jackson Suber to the final group with Herbert. DeChambeau and Sam Burns, who shot 62 on Friday, are scheduled to tee off at 10:30 a.m. ET followed by Cameron Young and Ryan Gerard, then Suber and Herbert.
DeChambeau hit his drive at the par-4 fifth hole far right and eventually found the ball in a native area. Replays showed the two-time major winner stamping down on different patches of tall grass near his ball. It may have affected not the lie of the ball, but the path for his eventual swing.
DeChambeau vehemently disagreed with the ruling as officials shuttled him back to the scene of the alleged misdeed before he could enter the scoring trailer to sign his second-round scorecard.
U.S. TV cameras captured a discussion several minutes long, and at points DeChambeau could be seen gesticulating and getting animated.
“He’s a lot of things. He’s not a cheater,” Falkoff later told reporters. “He’s a big boy. He’ll see how he feels. But he certainly feels he was unfairly penalized.”
More than an hour after his round ended, the R&A, who organize The Open, cemented their decision. A new score was reflected on the massive leaderboard between the 18th green and where DeChambeau stood ripping golf balls on the driving range.
Following that session on the range, which commenced immediately after DeChambeau and his team left scoring, the narrative was less about the infraction and more about what comes next.
TV cameras had shown DeChambeau appear to tell rules officials “I just won’t play tomorrow” before they boarded multiple carts to return to the scoring trailer and the R&A released its decision.
DeChambeau didn’t have a choice whether he would play the weekend at the first three majors of the year, as he missed the cut at the Masters, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open.
The R&A, which organizes The Open, confirmed DeChambeau’s penalty was not for improving the lie of his ball, but rather the path for his eventual swing.
“An improvement means to alter one or more of the conditions affecting the stroke so that the player gains a potential advantage for the stroke,” Grant Moir, the R&A’s executive director for governance, told reporters. “Now, I’ll stress that this applies even when the action is accidental, as it was in Bryson’s case.”
–Field Level Media
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