Bryson DeChambeau threatened to call Donald Trump over British Open penalty

Tuesday, 21 July 2026

Sam Burns and Bryson DeChambeau after the third round of the British Open.

ANALYSIS: In days gone by the idea that a golfer would want the president of the United States to intervene because he got a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie by a Southport pond might have been considered ridiculous. It is certainly a long way from golf's tradition of self-policing.

But Bryson DeChambeau is a close ally of Trump. Indeed, the president was only a few minutes into his election victory speech in Florida in 2024 before he was lauding DeChambeau, who trotted up to the stage in a MAGA hat. 'Hits the ball a little longer than me,' Trump said. 'Just a little bit.' The following year, DeChambeau told me: 'I've known him for more than eight years and we've developed a friendship. It's been fun to get to know who he truly is, rather than what people think and see of him.'

So when Geoff Shackelford, a veteran writer and course architect, claimed DeChambeau had asked for Trump to be brought into the Friday night conversation in the recorders' hut at Royal Birkdale, it did not sound as insane as it should have done. Sources have now confirmed DeChambeau did, indeed, talk of calling Trump, but he played no part in the rules discussions.

The incident in the fescue continues to fester. After Friday's round DeChambeau was told he was in breach of Rule 8.1 and had inadvertently improved his lie on the 5th hole by treading down the long grass behind his ball. DeChambeau was incandescent with innocence and asked to be driven back to the scene. TV cameras then showed him in heated discussion with Grant Moir, the R&A's governance chief. After that he was driven back to the recorders' hut, where he became embroiled in further debate. Finally, he accepted the penalty, but not before letting it be known that he was considering pulling out, then heading to the range.

Rory McIlroy was cutting in his assessment of Bryson DeChambeau’s behaviour.

The saga led to a delay in Saturday tee times being announced, which annoyed lots of players, including America's Justin Thomas and England's Marco Penge, who said he had been up since 3.50am and would like some sleep. That was why Rory McIlroy accused DeChambeau of holding the Open 'hostage' and being unfair to players and volunteers alike. 'I'm not particularly fond of him,' he added, which was cutting if probably unnecessary.

On Sunday, players were still giving their views. Scottie Scheffler, the world's best player and rarely a man who courts controversy, said: 'Maybe we need to be a little bit more strict in the way we are policing guys, but it's a bit of a balance because you've got certain guys like Bryson whose every shot is going to be shown on TV. When you have camera angles that are far away, things can look different than they do when you are right there.'

Scheffler stressed that DeChambeau is 'definitely not a cheater', which is the ultimate slur in golf, albeit one that has often been levelled at Trump himself. Indeed, the American journalist Rick Reilly wrote a book called Commander in Cheat: how golf explains Trump. That Trump should get involved in a rules row would not only underline a penchant for crazy interference in sport, shown by the overturned ban of the USA striker Folarin Balogun at the World Cup, but also be beyond parody.

Bryson DeChambeau speaks to a rules official on day three at Royal Birkdale.

Scheffler, though, was not finished and explained the line between right and wrong regarding the rules. 'Sometimes you see players maybe push it a little bit further than they should,' he said. 'We need to get back to the traditions of the game and maybe we do need to police things a little bit more stricter.'

McIlroy's view is that golfers have to take responsibility. 'There's a lot of guys that play this week and the shots aren't on camera,' he said. 'So you can say that's unfair, or it might happen more than it does. It's obviously impossible to police everyone and that's why it is, for the most part, a self-policing game.'

And, before we condemn modern players as out of touch with traditions and reality, we should remember Cameron Young, the 29-year-old Open runner-up, called a penalty on himself at May's Cadillac Championship, played at Trump's Doral course. Although nobody else noticed, he said he had caused his ball to move, almost imperceptibly, as he addressed it during his final round. He was docked a shot but still beat Scheffler by six.

Matt Wallace called a penalty on himself at the Valspar in March. Russell Henley owned up when he realised he had used two types of ball during a tournament in 2019. That led to an eight-shot penalty. It is an uneven playing field as some players are, frankly, more trustworthy than others, but while these infractions may seem trivial for lay watchers and have little impact on the result, it is the principle that matters.

The threat to ring Trump was pathetic, but the R&A has a good record of not genuflecting to the orange hacker and Turnberry is still not on the Open roster. As for DeChambeau, good player and great innovator, he has his hang-ups.

– The Times, London