A chaotic Open Championship for Bryson DeChambeau ended the same way it began: without facing the press.
For the third straight day, DeChambeau declined interview requests following his round at The Open. Four back of Sam Burns to start the day at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, DeChambeau posted a 2-over-par 72 to finish the championship at 4 under par, tied for 14th and six behind winner Ryan Fox of New Zealand.
DeChambeau’s unexplained tiff with the news media was a throughline of the week overshadowed only by the two-stroke penalty he was assessed Friday after his second round. That decision by the R&A led DeChambeau to drop from one off the 36-hole lead to three behind.
He was unable to recover, shooting a 1-under 69 Saturday before making a triple bogey on the 11th hole Sunday to end any faint hopes of a comeback.
DeChambeau’s only non-TV interview of any kind was after he opened Thursday with a 67. In a bizarre move, he refused to speak in a traditional press conference setting and instead had a one-on-one Q&A with a representative of the R&A.
His agent spoke for him Friday night while he ripped golf balls on the driving range at Royal Birkdale past sundown. DeChambeau had unsuccessfully argued his case to the R&A at the scene of the alleged misdeed on the fifth hole, where rules officials determined he had improved the path of his swing when he stamped down on patches of tall grass behind his ball.
“He’s a lot of things. He’s not a cheater,” agent Brett Falkoff told reporters, while emphasizing DeChambeau was seriously considering withdrawing in protest. “He’s a big boy. He’ll see how he feels. But he certainly feels he was unfairly penalized.”
DeChambeau posted on X just after midnight local time, “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.”
However, the R&A waited longer than usual to post the third-round tee times, most likely related to the possibility of DeChambeau dropping out, which angered his peers.
“It was a bit of a joke, really,” Englishman Marco Penge said. “I’m staying at home this week, which is an hour away, and not getting a tee time until 11 p.m. is not great, really, when the tournament probably finished at — we could have at least got a heads up for what time the first tee time was going to be. Obviously there was a lot of commotion, so that delayed things.”
“Late night for everyone,” Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy said. “Yeah, look, I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention.
“To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn’t feel like it was a great look.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler held his tongue about his opinion of the DeChambeau ruling on Saturday, but explained after his round Sunday that he doesn’t believe DeChambeau is a cheater.
“I hate saying stuff out here because I don’t want anything to get taken out of context. All I’ll say is Bryson, I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s a lot of things, but he’s definitely not a cheater. I’ve never seen him cheat once, whether we were having a putting contest on the putting green or chipping contest, or anytime we played amateur golf, I never saw anything suspicious.
“When you’re watching him there from that camera angle, maybe he was a touch careless around his ball, but I don’t think he did anything intentionally.”
The Open was the only major where DeChambeau made the cut in 2026. The LIV Golf star’s two major victories came at the U.S. Open in 2020 and 2024.
–Field Level Media
