DeChambeau’s Two-Shot Penalty Rewrites the Open’s Weekend Draw

Bryson DeChambeau shot a four-under 66 in the second round of the British Open on Friday. By the time R&A officials finished reviewing his tee shot on the fifth hole, it was a two-under 68. The two-time U.S. Open champion had dropped from solo second to a tie for fifth.

The two-stroke penalty at Royal Birkdale cost DeChambeau more than strokes. It wiped out the marquee Saturday pairing organizers had already drawn up. It dropped him into an early tee time next to Sam Burns instead. And it landed in the middle of a day that also included a conduct warning for Jon Rahm and a tie for the lowest round in major championship history.

How a 66 Became a 68

DeChambeau’s trouble started at the 321-yard, par-4 fifth hole, where his tee shot flew into knee-high grass well right of the fairway, leaving him a 72-yard approach. He was seen stepping around and behind the ball before playing it out, and he made bogey there on his way to what he believed was a 66.

He signed for that score, seven shots under par for the tournament and one behind leader Lucas Herbert. Then Grant Moir, the chief rules referee at The Open, and other R&A officials pulled him aside in the scoring tent. They drove him back out to the fifth hole in golf carts to review the footage.

Cameras caught DeChambeau pleading his case for more than eight minutes. The whole review took over 70 minutes from the moment he walked off the 18th green to the final ruling, according to Sky Sports. The R&A oversees the rules of golf everywhere except the United States and Mexico.

Moir determined DeChambeau had breached Rule 8.1a, which spells out the ban on bending or pressing down anything growing near a player’s ball. “I’ll stress that this applies even when the action is accidental, as it was in Bryson’s case,” Moir said. The R&A’s account also shared its explanation of the ruling publicly that evening.

The bogey became a triple bogey. DeChambeau’s round went from 66 to 68, and his tournament score fell from seven under to five under, three shots behind Herbert instead of one.

Saturday’s Final Group Gets Rewritten

Before the penalty, Herbert and DeChambeau, separated by a single shot, were set to headline Saturday’s third round as the day’s anchor pairing. One pairings sheet, published before the ruling was finalized, listed them as the tournament’s marquee twosome.

Once the penalty dropped DeChambeau three shots back, the draw changed. Herbert’s new Saturday partner is Jackson Suber, sitting at six under, two shots off the lead. DeChambeau is now scheduled to tee off at 10:30 a.m. ET, which is 3:30 p.m. in England, alongside Sam Burns, hours ahead of the leaders.

Television analysts were already picking the infraction apart live, before any ruling had come down. Golf Channel’s broadcast team, Jim Furyk and Curt Byrum, dissected the infraction live on air as DeChambeau navigated his second shot on the fifth.

DeChambeau Goes Quiet Again

DeChambeau didn’t speak with reporters after his round, extending his run to six consecutive major rounds without answering questions from the media, per Sky Sports. His agent, Brett Falkoff, fielded questions instead.

Asked whether DeChambeau would play Saturday, Falkoff said, “We’ll see. Your guess is as good as mine.” At one point during his dispute with officials, DeChambeau appeared to threaten not to play at all.

He didn’t stay silent everywhere. Hours after storming off to the range, he posted on social media.

I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is. This fires me up. Onto the weekend. Let’s get it.

DeChambeau wrote in a message posted the same evening. The frustration capped a week he badly needed. He had missed the cut in the year’s first three majors. He arrived at Birkdale having reworked his entire bag, debuting custom 3D-printed irons and swapping his usual graphite for True Temper Dynamic Gold X7 steel shafts.

Why Did Rahm Only Get a Warning?

Rahm avoided a stroke penalty because his club toss counted as a first offense under a code of conduct all four majors adopted this year. A second breach would cost him two shots. A third would disqualify him. Two other players have already tested the same policy this season.

Rahm’s moment came on the par-3 15th. His tee shot missed left of the green, and he flung his iron forward in disgust, the club bouncing hard off the firm turf. Officials approached him at the 17th tee to deliver the warning under what the R&A calls its serious misconduct policy.

“I don’t always love the word ’emotional,'” Rahm said. “I’m definitely more intense and passionate than a lot of the players out here, especially at work. It’s not like I’m going to, if I try to alter who I am too much, it might cost me a little bit on the course. But certainly shouldn’t have moments like the one on 15.”

R&A chief executive Mark Darbon explained the policy’s purpose at his pre-championship news conference. “We believe that we have a responsibility to play a leadership role to ensure that fans watching all around the world see appropriate behaviour from the world’s best players,” he said. The policy has already been tested twice this year.

• Joaquin Niemann was docked two strokes at the U.S. Open for throwing his club, even though officials had no video of the toss.
• Sergio Garcia received a warning at the Masters after slamming his driver into a tee box and breaking it against a cooler.
• Jon Rahm was warned at the British Open for flinging his iron on the 15th hole.

Rahm bogeyed the 15th, then birdied two of his last three holes for a 67, leaving him four shots behind Herbert. He said he wasn’t about to tone down his personality for the weekend, warning or not.

Two 62s for the Record Book

Royal Birkdale, on England’s northwest coast in Southport, is hosting the 154th Open Championship. Friday belonged to two players who nearly didn’t have their best rounds noticed at all.

Herbert missed a five-foot par putt on the 18th green that would have given him a 61. He settled for a 62 anyway, becoming the sixth player to shoot that score in a major championship and taking his first 36-hole lead in a major.

Twenty-two minutes later, Burns holed out from a pot bunker on the 18th for a birdie-birdie-birdie finish, becoming the seventh player to card a 62 in a major. He almost wasn’t in the field at all.

His wife was due with their second child this week. She delivered a daughter early, on July 3, and Burns decided last Friday to fly over for one more shot at a major. He had been runner-up by a single shot at the U.S. Open weeks earlier.

Four Shots Now Separate Six Contenders

When the second round finally finished, Herbert stood alone at eight under 132. Everyone chasing him is bunched tightly behind.

Scheffler, the defending champion, struggled to make anything until that closing par save. Suber and Gerard, both newcomers to links golf, are suddenly two shots from the lead in their first Open Championship together.

DeChambeau Confirms He Will Play Saturday

By Saturday morning, the uncertainty resolved itself. DeChambeau confirmed he would tee it up for the third round rather than withdraw over the ruling.

Herbert and Suber tee off last, in the pairing the leaderboard demanded. DeChambeau and Burns go off hours earlier, at 10:30 a.m. ET, in a pairing nobody had drawn up two days ago.