Bryson DeChambeau headlined Friday at Royal Birkdale. Unfortunately for him, it was for all the wrong reasons.
Shortly after completing his second round, DeChambeau entered the scoring tent to put his signature on the card to complete his 4-under 66. Instead, Open Championship officials let him know there were questions about whether he improved his lie when he prepared to hit his second shot on the par-4 fifth hole earlier in the day.
Eventually, tournament officials moved DeChambeau to the scene to tell his side of the story. But despite a heated debate with R&A officials, DeChambeau was assessed a two-stroke penalty, which dropped him from seven to five under the championship, leaving him three behind Lucas Herbert’s lead.
The penalty made for a controversial finish to the first 36 holes of the year’s final major – even leaving DeChambeau threatening to walk away in protest – and will be discussed throughout the remainder of the tournament. See below for an explanation of the law in question.
What rule did DeChambeau break?
If you watch the video of the infraction in question, you will see that as DeChambeau goes to his ball, he steps on the tall grass near his ball. This may seem innocent enough, but according to the Laws of Golf, this could be grounds for a penalty.
The rule at the center of the dispute is Rule 8, which “encapsulates the main goal of the game: ‘play the course as you find it.'” Specifically, Rule 8.1a, which states that players must not “move, bend or break any natural object that is raised or attached” in a way that would improve the intended swing area. In DeChambeau’s case, this involved the grass he had stepped on near his ball.
“Bryson was penalized two strokes for correcting his intended swing,” said chief rules umpire Grant Moir. “Improving means changing one or more conditions that affect the stroke so that players have a better chance of hitting a stroke. Now, I’ll stress that this applies even when the action has occurred, as it did in Bryson’s case.”
Although DeChambeau did not aim improving his lie when walking near his ball in preparation for a shot, the fact that doing so improved the position of his swing is grounds for a two-stroke penalty. It’s a tough break for a two-time champion, but according to the letter of the law, the rule was applied correctly.
