An eventful Friday at the Open Championship — which included two players firing 62s — quickly became headlined by a rules controversy centered around the already-controversial Bryson DeChambeau.
DeChambeau thought he shot a four-under 66 at Royal Birkdale on Friday and was in solo second and one behind the leader at the 36-hole mark, although as soon as his round was finished, he was met by R&A rules officials to discuss an incident on the 5th hole.
You can read lots more about what happened here, but the gist of it is that R&A officials wanted to hear DeChambeau’s explanation of what happened on 5. He missed the fairway well right in the fescue, and in the process of walking around his ball and dissecting his approach shot, officials deemed DeChambeau had improved his swing path. The TV broadcast showed an animated DeChambeau pleading his case with rules officials at the spot of the incident.
DeChambeau didn’t speak with reporters, although Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis said he talked to DeChambeau’s agent and caddie, and the feeling was that even if DeChambeau unintentionally knocked any grass down, it still didn’t affect his lie or swing path.
The R&A penalized DeChambeau two strokes, turning his 66 into a 68. DeChambeau then went to the range as Lewis reported live on Golf Channel.
“The other interesting thing coming from [agent] Brett Falkoff is that Bryson DeChambeau, despite him hitting balls right now, still is undecided as to whether or not he’s going to continue in this championship,” Lewis said. “He’s going to make his decision tomorrow morning as to whether or not he’s going to come out to Birkdale to compete in Round 3.“
DeChambeau’s drama-filled finish gave the Golf Channel Live From crew — Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley with host Rich Lerner — plenty to unpack.
“This was such a clear violation,” Chamblee said. “It is really hard to stomach the silliness that we have seen here from Bryson. You accept this like a man. You look at the evidence, and you are like, you are right, I did break the rule. This is a clear infraction. What is the penalty?
“And just to underscore how childish it is of him, to say he doesn’t know if he’s going to play. Let’s just say right now the R&A has made tee times for tomorrow and he pulls out, that means somebody with a chance to win a golf tournament would play as a one-ball.”
Chamblee and McGinley brought up other rules incidents like Esteban Toledo in Q-School and Dustin Johnson at the 2010 PGA Championship, where penalties were called and they were accepted without dispute. Now there was that lingering question of whether or not DeChambeau would even play on Saturday.
“That isn’t going to happen,” McGinley said of DeChambeau withdrawing. “The damage to Bryson’s brand should he do that would be colossal. There is no way that him or any of his team would let that happen. And anyway, the guy is one shot out of second place in the Open Championship. You don’t walk away from an Open Championship when you are playing great — that’s not going to happen. That was something that was probably said in the heat of the moment and he was so mad. And when he calms down and reality comes into it he will accept it and move on.”
At five under for the tournament, DeChambeau is tied for fifth and three back of leader Lucas Herbert. DeChambeau is scheduled to tee off alongside Sam Burns at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday.
But will he show up? After leaving Royal Birkdale without addressing the media, DeChambeau took to social media to say that he would indeed be playing the weekend with a chance to win the Claret Jug.
It has been a disappointing and chaotic major season for DeChambeau.
He missed the cut at the first three majors of the season, and he’s declined to speak with the assembled media after his last several rounds. DeChambeau was also recently irked by comments made by Nick Faldo, and it’s likely he heard what Chamblee said before this tournament started as well, that “he went from chasing Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy to chasing Grant Horvat. It’s like he wants to outdo every YouTuber in the game of golf instead of outplay everybody in the game of golf.”
On Friday, Chamblee called this latest DeChambeau chapter “childish” and “immature.”
“I think there’s an aspect to [his team] that’s trying to curate his image all the time,” Chamblee said before DeChambeau announced his intention to play. “I agree, I think he’s going to play, but let’s just say he may not — there’s a 1 or 2 percent chance he does not — I think this is purely performative to get the world to talk about him all night.”
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