Bryson DeChambeau threatens WD after controversial, chaotic Open penalty

The first Open Championship was played in 1860, back when Queen Victoria was on the throne and Charles Dickens was driving page views. One hundred and fifty-three editions of the tournament have been held since that first event; that’s a lot of golf, a lot of champion golfers and a lot of back-to-back decisions – albeit a few controversial decisions by R&A officials in the waning moments of the second round at Royal Birkdale on Friday.

When Bryson DeChambeau, who attracts games like light does moths, arrived in the scorer’s room to sign what he thought was a second-round, four-under 66 that put him in second place alone, at seven under, one out of Lucas Herbert’s lead, the officials informed DeChambeau that there was a problem. A video surfaced of DeChambeau preparing to play his second shot into the fescue right of the fairway on the 4th 5th, and it didn’t look good.

The video showed DeChambeau, while testing his 72-yard shot, stepping on the wispy, tall grass behind and near his ball. One of the most basic and important rules of golf is that you must play the course as you find it. To put it another way, under Rule 8.1b, players must not “move, bend or break any growing or attached natural objects.” Put another way, that means no treading on grass to promote your lies.

Is it DeChambeau? Birdale’s 5th round was a Rorschach test of the rules of golf. R&A officials countered that, yes, DeChambeau, in his high-grass style, he did improve his condition; DeChambeau, however, has categorically denied any wrongdoing. Much of the drama played out in front of TV cameras as DeChambeau, before signing his card, revisited the scene of his alleged crime to plead guilty. Joining him were several officials, and the conversation quickly turned heated, DeChambeau waving his arms as he defended his actions and, by extension, his reputation. This went on for over 10 minutes, with cameras rolling everywhere.

“You have to take care of the ball,” said Charlie Maran, the R&A’s chief rules officer, on NBC radio. “It’s about whether his actions furthered his lies.”

One who watched the sequence unfold was NBC analyst Jim Furyk who said on air: “My guess is what Bryson is saying is [the grass] he was behind the ball, that the club is taken upwards. He had that ball back to form. … You saw it [the grass] he was not in his life.”

That possible defense did not hold water in the eyes of the R&A. When the meeting on the 5th was over, DeChambeau and the officials went back to the meeting room and disappeared to talk for a long time, which as the minutes drew near, they were waiting for the meeting of the pope. Social media was abuzz with disbelief and speculation. And finally, the official decision came out, along with an explanation from the chief referee of the Open, Grant Moir.

“Bryson was penalized two strokes for improving his intended swing, so he backed off on the 5th hole when he played his second shot,” began Moir, speaking to news-hungry media at Birkdale.

Moir said the ruling “limits what a player can do to improve any protected stroke conditions, and this includes the player’s target swing position. So improvement means changing one or more stroke conditions so that the player can gain a potential benefit from the stroke.”

“Now, I will stress that this applies even when the act is accidental, as it was in Bryson’s case.

“The area of ​​the intended swing includes every area that may reasonably affect any part of the retreat, decline or complaint of the intended swing, and importantly, what action is prohibited here is that the player must not move, bend or break any object that is growing or attached. stroke, but when doing so, the player must take an intervention to deal with the specific situation and does not have the right to stop or swing normally.

“I will also emphasize that this law applies even if there is no intention to develop the area, as happened in Bryson.

“That’s all I have to say.”

DeChambeau, three years back and tied for 5th, had very little to say, refusing to speak to the media, as he has all week and for much of the 2026 season. After his session in the scoring room, DeChambeau headed straight to the driving range, stopping along the way to sign a few autographs. DeChambeau’s manager, Brett Falkoff, provided the roving reporters with one amazing color.

He said DeChambeau does not know if he will continue to play in the 154th Open. According to Falkoff, DeChambeau will announce his decision Saturday morning.

“He’s a lot of things,” Falkoff said. “He is not a fraud.”