It was Ryan Fox who birdied the 18th hole on Sunday to win The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Despite the electric finish, all anyone’s talking about is Bryson DeChambeau, who was given a two-stroke penalty following Friday’s second round. The penalty has apparently divided the golf community, but the fact remains that DeChambeau’s response to the penalty over the weekend took away from Fox’s triumphant moment. And now, word is that DeChambeau reportedly tried and failed to rope President Donald Trump into said controversy.
The drama unfolded after Friday’s second round, when it seemed DeChambeau finished the day in sole possession of second place with a -7 under score heading into the third round. At least it appeared that way — until the leaderboard was updated to reflect a two-stroke penalty against DeChambeau, after officials claimed he stomped on the grass behind his ball to improve the line of his swing at No. 5. That, officials say, violates Rule 8.1, which states that, in order “to support the principle of ‘play the course as you find it,’ this Rule restricts what a player may do to improve any of these protected ‘conditions affecting the stroke’ (anywhere on or off the course).”
The penalty, obviously, did not sit well with DeChambeau, who got off to a roaring start at The Open, a stark contrast to his performances in the season’s first three Majors, in which he missed the cut each time. It seemed DeChambeau had finally found his groove. Then it dissipated with the snap of a ruling. And here’s where things get interesting:
According to The Quadrilateral‘s Geoff Shackelford, DeChambeau refused to accept his two-stroke penalty. So much so, DeChambeau, a staunch Trump supporter, reportedly asked officials to phone in the President of the United States to weigh in on the penalty, similarly to how Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino to reverse U.S. men’s national team star Folarin Balogun’s suspension following a red card in the Round of 32 of the World Cup. Trump’s phone call worked, and Balogun was allowed to play. That Belgium dominated the U.S. in the Round of 16 is a long-forgotten footnote.
Nevertheless, Shackelford went on to report that DeChambeau’s request to get Trump involved was denied. DeChambeau also refused to sign his scorecard long after the infraction, delaying the players coming off the 18th green, who were then not able to sign for their rounds and waited for DeChambeau to sign his first. The Quadrilateral reports that this delayed tee time processing until nearly midnight.
It’s worth noting that The Guardian later matched The Quadrilateral‘s reporting.
DeCheambeau, who refused to speak to reporters after each round and threatened to pull out of The Open following the penalty, finished tied for 14th after ending the weekend at 276 (-4).
McIlroy, Scheffler react
Rory McIlroy pulled no punches for his disdain towards the LIV Golf star.
“Yeah, look, I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson,” McIlroy told reporters. “I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention.”
The six-time Major champion also took issue with DeChambeau not signing his scorecard in a timely fashion.
“To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn’t feel like it was a great look,” McIlroy said.
Scottie Scheffler, a four-time Major champ, offered a different perspective and defended DeChambeau.
“All I can really say is I think maybe we need to be a little bit more strict in the way that we are policing guys, but it’s a little bit of a balance because you’ve got certain guys like a Bryson who every shot he hits is going to be shown on TV,” Scheffler told reporters. “When you have camera angles that are far away, things can look different than they do when you’re right there.”
He continued, “We’ve done a good job of, like — I hate saying stuff out here because I don’t want anything to get taken out of context. All I’ll say is, Bryson, I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a lot of things, but he’s definitely not a cheater. I’ve never seen him cheat once, whether we were having a putting contest on the putting green or [a] chipping contest, or anytime we played amateur golf, I never saw anything suspicious.”
Scheffler added that “maybe [DeChambeau] was a touch careless around his ball, but I don’t think he did anything intentionally.”
