Count Rory McIlroy among those agreeing with the two-stroke penalty Bryson DeChambeau incurred following his round Friday at the Open Championship.
After a lengthy - and heated - discussion on the fifth hole following DeChambeau's second round, rules officials slapped him with a penalty for inadvertently improving his backswing by tramping down high grass around his ball before hitting.
The two-shot infraction changed DeChambeau's 66 to a 68 and saw him fall from solo second into a tie for fifth place. Opinions throughout the golf world seemed split on whether he deserved the penalty, but McIlroy was firmly in agreement with the decision.
"I was up in the players lounge watching it with a few other players, and as soon as he made the step into the ball, we all sort of looked at each other, and we were like, that didn't seem right," McIlroy said following his third round Saturday. "I think there's no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing. Again, it's like, whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don't think it matters. Hopefully it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure."
The entire process between DeChambeau and the rules officials took over an hour, but that wasn't the end of the incident for the two-time U.S. Open champion.
DeChambeau's agent told reporters after the ruling that his client could sit out the third round in protest of the penalty, which forced The Open to delay the release of the third-round tee times. Following a range session, DeChambeau shared on social media Friday night that he would, in fact, play Saturday.
That behavior didn't sit well with McIlroy.
"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," McIlroy said. "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."
There's history between DeChambeau and McIlroy; the two have battled at multiple major championships over the past few years. DeChambeau notably got the best of McIlroy at the 2024 U.S. Open, while the Northern Irishman flipped the script at the dramatic 2025 Masters when they played alongside each other in the final group.
DeChambeau made headlines after falling short that day in Augusta, sharing that McIlroy barely talked to him during the round, a complaint that caught the Ulsterman by surprise.
"I don't know what he was expecting," McIlroy said at the PGA Championship a month later. "I mean, we're trying to win the Masters. I'm not gonna try to be his best mate out there."
