Bryson DeChambeau walked off the 18th green in the second round of the 2026 Open Championship pumping his fist and waving to the crowd after a birdie at the last got him to 7 under, one shot back of the lead heading into the weekend at Royal Birkdale. Or so he thought.
As DeChambeau walked to the scoring area, he was greeted by R&A officials who informed him they wanted to go back to the 5th hole and investigate a potential rules violation after DeChambeau’s tee shot found the tall grass well right of the drivable par 4.
Video showed DeChambeau stepping on tall grass behind his ball numerous times, appearing to purposefully stomp it down to clear a path for his swing. As he was deemed to have done that, he received a two-stroke penalty, pushing him from solo 2nd into T5 on the leaderboard, three shots back of leader Lucas Herbert.
As a result, DeChambeau is threatening to withdraw from The Open.
His agent confirmed to Kevin Van Valkenburg that DeChambeau is legitimately considering departing England before teeing off for Round 3, explaining, “He’s a lot of things. He’s not a cheater.” However, the two-time U.S. Open winner will not decide until Saturday.
“He’s a big boy. He’ll see how he feels. But he certainly feels he was unfairly penalized,” the agent said.
DeChambeau and his caddie rode out to the site with the officials, where an increasingly frustrated DeChambeau pleaded his case. Unfortunately for him, the R&A were clearly not buying his attempt at proving his innocence. The saga produced some incredible scenes, where even without audio, it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.
Despite DeChambeau’s best efforts and wild gestures, he was unable to sway the officials from handing him the penalty. The parties rode back to the scoring area, where a lengthy discussion continued with DeChambeau, his caddie and his agent.
R&A executive director of governance Grant Moir confirmed the penalty after the round:
“Bryson has been penalized two strokes for inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing. … 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 complaining 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.”
The ultimate result was that his bogey on the 5th became a triple bogey, and his 66 for the round turned into a 68. That dropped him from solo 2nd at 7 under back to 5 under and into T5 alongside Sam Burns and Si Woo Kim. That is a significant difference halfway through a tournament, and the penalty decision immediately becomes one of the biggest storylines of the weekend, no matter what DeChambeau does on Saturday and Sunday.
If he wins, he’ll have overcome a rules decision he believes to be harsh and unfair — although it’s not hard to see what the rules officials see on video. If he finishes one or two shots off the lead, the two-stroke penalty will be an even bigger story, and if he backs up and falls off the pace, plenty will speculate that the penalty shook DeChambeau’s focus.