Will Bryson DeChambeau tee it up in round three of the Open Championship? That’s the big question after he was slapped with a two-shot penalty for inadvertently improving his lie in the right rough on the par-4 5th hole at Royal Birkdale.
The American was furious with R&A rules officials when they bizarrely took him down to re-enact the incident at the scene of the crime where he appeared to trample on some of the long fescue, thus flattening it and unknowingly improving his lie.
As a result his bogey was turned into a triple bogey seven and he saw his impressive 66 change to a 68 moving him from one shot to three shots behind Lucas Herbert on five-under and out of the final group – should he opt to turn up on Saturday.
Bryson’s agent told reporters that “your guess is as good as mine” whether or not the two-time US Open winner would tee it up in round three.
Grant Moir, the R&A Executive Director, Governance, explained the situation to the media in a brief statement.
“Bryson has been penalized two strokes for inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing, so intended backswing on the 5th hole when he was playing his second shot.
“Basically I’m going to explain the technicalities of the rule here for you. Ruling 1 restricts what a player may do to improve any of the protected conditions affecting the stroke, and this includes the area of the player’s intended swing. So an improvement means to alter one or more of the conditions affecting the stroke so that the player gains a potential advantage for the stroke.
“Now, I’ll stress that this applies even when the action is accidental, as it was in Bryson’s case.
“The area of intended swing includes the entire area that might reasonably affect any part of the backswing, the downswing or the completion of the swing for the intended stroke, and importantly, what the prohibited action here is that the player mustn’t move, bend or break any growing or attached natural object. A player is allowed to fairly take their stance by taking reasonable actions to get to the ball and take a stance, if in some situations that improves the condition affecting the stroke, but when doing so, the player must take the least intrusive course of action to deal with the particular situation and is not entitled to a normal stance or swing.
“I would reiterate this rule applies even when there’s no intention to improve the area, as was the case with Bryson.
“That’s all I have to say.”
DeChambeau continued the controversy when he emerged from the scoring hut and headed straight to the driving range to put on a late night practice session where he reportedly offered the assembled media at the back of the practice tee some snacks.
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