Bryson DeChambeau and President Donald Trump have played enough golf together; it barely comes as a novelty anymore. Trump has even appeared on DeChambeau’s “Break 50” YouTube series and famously calls him “Mr. 58,” a reference to his round at Greenbrier. So when the two-time U.S. Open winner was handed a two-stroke penalty by the R&A on July 17th, reaching for a relationship with Trump wasn’t out of character. What he asked for, though, was still a lot—and the R&A said no.

As reported by Geoff Shackelford on his Quadrilateral Substack, DeChambeau had appealed for a penalty stroke review.

Here’s what triggered the appeal: broadcast footage showed DeChambeau stepping through tall fescue behind his ball on hole 5, bending it before his second shot. DeChambeau had already signed his scorecard for a four-under 66 in round two when the officials had to call him back.

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Before a final decision, officials called DeChambeau to the native area seeking an explanation. During a 30-minute standoff with R&A officials, DeChambeau animatedly defended himself — and asked Trump be looped in. He hoped the president could help him campaign against the two-stroke penalty that turned his round into a disaster.

While his warm relationship was why he sought the president’s intervention, another was the president’s influence over major decisions.

The timing mattered. Just 24 hours earlier, Trump had called FIFA president Gianni Infantino about a red card reversal. It worked. DeChambeau was watching.

Despite that, the request was denied outright, along with DeChambeau’s separate pleas to have the two-stroke penalty rescinded altogether.

‘R&A Chief Executive Mark Darbon was asked point-blank on Saturday whether the White House had made contact.

“No, I have not received a call from President Trump,” he said, adding the ruling would have landed the same no matter who the player was.

Interestingly, a clear denial from the chief executive did not stop the story from taking a life of its own online. Within hours, a screenshot began circulating on X. It was a post from Donald Trump on Truth Social, with a clear message calling R&A “rigged” for penalizing DeChambeau.

The post closely mimicked Trump’s writing style, with capitalized words, exclamation marks, and direct digs. It even ended with “Make Golf Great Again.”

However, the post was by writer and editor Jeff Smith from Pro Weekly Golf. He tagged it with “Fake but Funny” to clarify that the post was satirical.

As Bryson DeChambeau’s pleas went in vain, he skipped the media entirely in his usual style. He headed to the range instead for 45 minutes. His agent, Brett Falkoff, stuck around to speak to reporters, sharing that DeChambeau felt genuinely wronged. There was a lot of uncertainty about whether Bryson would tee up for the final round, but he cleared that up after midnight in a tweet. He posted, “Obviously disappointed with the ruling, but it fires me up.”

Through it all, Bryson DeChambeau finished the Open Championship tied for 14th at four under, six strokes behind winner Ryan Fox.