Bryson DeChambeau’s Open Performance Marred By Penalty Fallout

Bryson DeChambeau’s best performance and only made cut at one of golf’s four majors this year was marred by the two-stroke penalty he received after his second round Friday, the controversy over his reaction, and the fallout that ensued for the remainder of the tournament.

DeChambeau, LIV Golf’s biggest star, finished tied for 14th at the Open Championship with a score of -4, six strokes behind winner Ryan Fox. The two-stroke penalty ultimately cost him $279,887 in prize money. He received $234,325 for finishing T14 with three other players, but would have received $514,212 had he not been penalized and finished in a four-way tie for sixth place.

The penalty also knocked DeChambeau out of the final pairing for Saturday’s third round—he would have been just one stroke behind 36-hole leader Lucas Herbet (-8) but was instead three back. DeChambeau shot 69 during the third round before losing momentum on Sunday and shooting 72.

DeChambeau did not speak to the assembled media at Royal Birkdale or do any TV interviews over the weekend to address the rules violation. On Friday night, he tweeted: “Obviously disappointed with the ruling. I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is. This fires me up. Onto the weekend. Let’s get it.” That night, he also posted several pictures on Instagram, seemingly poking fun at and making light of the situation.

DeChambeau will tee it up again this week at LIV Golf U.K., which begins Thursday at JCB Golf and Country Club. The league is returning from a 47-day break in competitive action as it continues to search for new investors following the Saudi PIF pulling its funding. DeChambeau has been helping LIV look for new financial backers.

Delayed Tee Times Upset Players

The release of third round tee times was delayed until almost 11 p.m. local time in England on Friday night as the R&A, which operates the Open, dealt with the DeChambeau situation. Not only was DeChambeau pleading his case, trying to avoid the two-stroke penalty, which had an impact on Saturday pairings, but he was also threatening not to play the remainder of the tournament.

“Late night for everyone,” Rory McIlroy said after his third round Saturday. “Yeah, look, I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention. 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.”

English player Marco Penge was even more frustrated. “It was a bit of a joke, really,” Penge said. “I’m staying at home this week, which is an hour away, and not getting a tee time until 11 p.m. is not great, really, when the tournament probably finished at—we could have at least got a heads up for what time the first tee time was going to be.”

Xander Schauffele said, “I don’t have social media, so I was wondering why our tee times weren’t coming out at about 10:50 p.m. last night. I’m assuming that had something to do with it.”

Some Players See Bryson’s Point

The R&A’s official ruling stated that DeChambeau’s violation was unintentional, and several fellow players sympathized with his reaction to the penalty. 

“I honestly feel bad for Bryson in the situation that he was in,” said Sam Burns, who was paired with DeChambeau during the third round. “From my perspective, I didn’t feel like maybe there was enough evidence for him to deserve a penalty there.”

Max Homa said, “I agree with him for being frustrated, especially I’m assuming that was not his intent. I understood the demonstrative nature and actions because it probably just feels a bit like an indictment. But the rules are complicated. It’s crazy.”

Scottie Scheffler, who was playing in DeChambeau’s group during the second round when the rules violation happened, addressed the situation after his final round Sunday. 

“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,” Sheffler said. “When you have camera angles that are far away, things can look different than they do when you’re right there.”