SOUTHPORT, England — Bryson loved Arnold.
He has said that more than once. Oh, where are my manners here, especially for you young people? Arnold Palmer, who won the first of his two British Opens here at Royal Birkdale in 1961. Bryson, of course, is Bryson DeChambeau, winner of the 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational, about 15 months before he went LIV. Bryson won Arnold’s event, put on a red cardigan emblematic of the late host and said that Arnold would be in his dream foursome, along with Ben Hogan and his father. Nice.
On Friday night, here at Royal Birkdale, DeChambeau found himself in a rules dispute with the R&A, presenters of this oldest of golf tournaments, the Open Championship, and, with the USGA, the writers of its rules and the final arbiter of its rules disputes. Almost every player with a long career has eventually had one or more rules disputes with golf’s officialdom. Arnold certainly did. How you handle them is how you handle them.
I was lucky to interview Palmer more than a few times in the last 30 years of his life. Since his death in 2016, I have gotten to know one of his two daughters, Peg Palmer Wears, and one of his two grandsons, Will Wears, who has played in several USGA events as an amateur. In the final years of his grandfather’s life, Will Wears was able to get to know his mother’s father well. I go to him, now and again, as an Arnold whisperer. Wears is not claiming he knows what his grandfather would say about this issue or that one. But he offers me his best and educated guess.
For instance, Wears told me a couple years ago that Arnold would have fought the PGA Tour ban on LIV players. He would have wanted Bryson in the field of his invitational event, because a golf tournament is better when DeChambeau is in the field, when he’s trying to drive a 560-yard boomerang par-5 (if you take the land route on the 6th hole at Bay Hill) by taking a line right over a lake.
On Saturday, I asked Wears what he thinks his grandfather would have advised DeChambeau, had he been in his inner-circle, Friday night at Birkdale. Arnold returned to the regal course — duney and sandy and windswept — often in the years after his win here in 1961.
“I think he would have told Bryson to respect the R&A’s authority over the game and the event,” Wears said. “I think he would have suggested he say something like, ‘I wasn’t trying to improve the path of my backswing as I walked behind the ball, but if the R&A said I did, I did.’”
That’s not threatening to withdraw from the tournament. That’s not ignoring reporters. That’s not dissing the organization that writes the rules, prepares the course, shines the trophy, distributes the checks. It’s the complete and total opposite. It respects the game’s necessary hierarchy. The players are visitors to this game. There were golfers before Arnold Palmer, of course. There will be golfers after Bryson DeChambeau. If the center holds, tournament golf can thrive. If players put themselves above the game, golf can turn into WWE rassling.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
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