Never in the past 153 Open Championships has something like this happened. In the span of a few hours at the 154th Open, one contender faced a two-stroke penalty, spent nearly half an hour arguing with officials, threatened not to play the weekend if he were penalized, hit balls in the dark until late hours, offered reporters beef sticks, and posted memes on Instagram before finally going to bed. Yes, it all happened to two-time major winner and 21st-century golf content king Bryson DeChambeau.

Let us unpack it here one at a time. On Friday, DeChambeau birdied his 18th hole en route to what he assumed was a 66 for the day and a 7-under after 36 holes, just one shot shy of second-round leader Lucas Herbert. He had also proved Nick Faldo wrong for the second straight day. Even English fans were rooting for him. And he was finally going to make it to the weekend for the first time in a major this season.

After signing the scorecard, DeChambeau would have walked out of Royal Birkdale if not for an official informing him and his caddie, Greg Bodine, that they had noticed something unusual hours earlier on the 5th. The official informed him that he had improved his lie and would be given a two-stroke penalty.

🤔 golf trivia

This Should Be an Easy One, Right?

01/10

How Many Shots Was Bryson DeChambeau Penalized in R2 of the Open?

2134

Oops, bogey!

But don’t worry, there’s still the back 9 to prove your high golf IQ

PLAY GOLF TRIVIA

Reluctantly, at around 8:55 PM, DeChambeau, his team, and the official rode back to the 5th to recreate the moment.

So, what really happened on the 5th?

On the 5th, DeChambeau’s tee shot found a thick fescue. Because the fescue is waist-high in places and thick enough that you need a proper strategy–indeed, the word strategy–DeChambeau assessed his lie. He went behind the ball to check the pin location, and a few blades of fescue got pushed down as he walked around the area. Some claimed DeChambeau was basically “stomping” around the area.

In this video shared by Golf Channel, at around the 0:38-0:41 mark, DeChambeau planted his foot near the ball and noticeably bent some of the tall grass backward.

Then, at the 0:45 mark, you can trace the path his club takes through the backswing and downswing. That you’d say was where the problem began. That’s what the R&A official said as well; more specifically, he inadvertently made it easier for himself.

Had the grass remained standing, they believed DeChambeau’s club would’ve faced more resistance during the swing. He may have needed a different stance, and his backswing could have been altered. Even if only slightly, the conditions affecting the stroke had changed. Simply put, he might have made a double or worse instead of the bogey he made.

Did he cheat?

No.

R&A rules official Grant Moir called it accidental, saying, “An improvement means to alter one or more conditions affecting the stroke so that the player gains a potential advantage for the stroke. This applies even when the action is accidental as it was in Bryson’s case.”

But did it look that way?

Absolutely.

And DeChambeau was furious.

He and the officials returned to the 5th hole, where he reenacted the moment, growing increasingly agitated as the minutes ticked by. In the video posted by Golf Channel, he’s seen waving his arms, speaking emphatically, and passionately arguing his innocence for more than eight minutes.

He handed his club to Bodine and stood there, laughing and crossing his arms behind his back in disbelief. Eventually, frustrated with the unmoving officials, DeChambeau threatened to pull out of the next round.

The group remained there for a little more than 10 minutes before eventually returning to the scoring area. Over half an hour later, at 9:33 PM, the official scoring on The Open website showed his new score as 5-under.

That’s how he was assessed a two-stroke penalty.

Why did the DeChambeau penalty result in such a big fuss?

Now, again, you might wonder why there’s such a big fuss. Multiple players have played on such thick fescue, and well, he is Bryson DeChambeau, you know? But there are two specific reasons.

First, there is no perfect camera angle from directly behind DeChambeau that conclusively proves the flattened grass would have interfered with his club. Without that angle, it’s impossible to know whether the grass actually mattered.

Secondly, fans pointed out that DeChambeau walking around isn’t exactly a novel move. Multiple players have done that. Wyndham Clark did so most recently at the U.S. Open.

Should all of them be penalized? The USGA’s Rule 8.1 “restricts what a player may do to improve any of these protected ‘conditions affecting the stroke.'” Here’s what it covers:

• The lie,
• The player’s intended stance,
• The area of the player’s intended swing,
• The player’s line of play,
• The area for drop/relief for the player’s ball

DeChambeau was not penalized for moving his ball, but rather for improving his lie by having a wider path for his backswing. Lottie Woad faced a similar situation at the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open, where she received a two-stroke penalty after she flattened out a spot for her to stand and play a shot from the bunker on the 9th. Like DeChambeau, she, too, received information about this later. But this did not come after she had finished the round. Instead, it came in when she was on the 11th.

There have been cases where golfers have not been penalized as well.

At this year’s Masters, José María Olazábal faced a potential penalty after his practice swing seemed to clip a branch and knock a few leaves off. Though this clearly saw him “move, bend or break any: growing or attached natural object,” he confirmed there was no discussion with the officials.

DeChambeau spends hours on the range after the penalty

DeChambeau was clearly losing his mind over it. And the evening was only getting stranger. Even for media persons.

The 2x major champion did not speak to the media afterward. Sarcastically, he dropped two lines: “I’m going to go hit some balls,” and “I’m having a great night.” He wasn’t, clearly.

Long after every other player had finished practicing, DeChambeau remained alone on the range, hitting shot after shot as darkness completely swallowed the course. Reporters stood behind the practice area, waiting for him to speak.

Instead, he hummed while swinging, occasionally asked them, “How does my swing look?” and even offered them snacks from his golf bag. The snacks, as per Golf Digest, never arrived.

It was around this time that DeChambeau’s team started hinting that he might actually withdraw. In fact, according to some reports, his agents were showing Wyndham Clark stomping on grass at the U.S. Open this year. Eventually, around 10:28 PM, he stopped, signed a glove, and handed it to a bewildered range attendant before quietly leaving without giving interviews.

Will he play?

There was still no answer from him, and the players were in a fun mood.

Surrounded by a mob of reporters, Scottie Scheffler joked, “Gee, I didn’t do anything that interesting today, guys.”

Ryan Gerard quipped, “Have fun.”

But everyone still waited for DeChambeau to confirm his presence for R3. And it did come.

DeChambeau mocks R&A first, then confirms round three presence

DeChambeau’s bruised ego wouldn’t let go of it at all. After leaving the range, he updated his Instagram to light-heartedly joke about R&A’s ruling. Or, really, mock if you look at it that way. Either way, he updated his social media by posting memes, where he is floating above the thick fescue on the 5th, listening to the official, in one photoshopped picture and swinging in the other, with the caption, “Walking into the weekend like…”

The two pictures were jammed between very normal photo updates from Friday’s round. Though fans surely found it funny, everyone still waited for a direct confirmation from the man of the hour. It didn’t come until 12 AM, around the same time he dropped the meme.

On X, he confirmed his presence for the third round in a post, “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.”

He has two rounds to prove himself now, but it certainly would be the talk of the town. In fact, it already is.

Hate him or love him, DeChambeau gets everyone talking

A long-standing critic of DeChambeau and LIV, Brandel Chamblee said of the rules controversy, “It is really hard to stomach the silliness that we’ve seen here from Bryson.”

Paul McGinley was a little more stringent in his response: “I don’t think Bryson is helping himself.”

He also added that though it might have been unfortunate, it was eventually the right call.

Eamon Lynch was less forgiving, saying on a broadcast, “This insistence that he can curate his own reality… free from being contradicted in any way, which is just not realistic for any elite athlete these days.”

Meanwhile, Brett Falkoff, DeChambeau’s agent, spoke of the situation as well and defended DeChambeau.

“He’s a lot of things. He’s not a cheater,” Falkoff clarified.

Right or not, DeChambeau moved from solo second to tied for fifth after the penalty. He will be in the group with Sam Burns and Si Woo Kim.

The only way to nurse his bruised ego would be to win The Open after three missed major cuts, something never done in men’s pro golf, as per stats guru Justin Ray. He can again prove Faldo wrong and push this nightmare round to the back of his mind (if possible).