Scottie Scheffler demands Open rule change after Bryson DeChambeau penalty saga

Scottie Scheffler has called for “stricter” rules following Bryson DeChambeau’s controversy at the 154th edition of The Open.

Australia’s Ryan Fox may have won the tournament, but much of the media and fan attention has centred around DeChambeau’s controversial behaviour on day two.

The American received a two-shot penalty during the second round at Royal Birkdale after the R&A adjudged him to have breached rules related to "inadvertently improving his lie".

The 32-year-old was adjudged to have broken Rule 8.1, which states:

“To support the principle of ‘play the course as you find it,’ this Rule restricts what a player may do to improve any of these protected ‘conditions affecting the stroke’ (anywhere on or off the course) for the next stroke the player will make:

“The lie of the player’s ball at rest,

“The area of the player’s intended stance,

“The area of the player’s intended swing,

“The player’s line of play, and

“The relief area where the player will drop or place a ball.”

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The decision was upheld despite the golfer engaging in heated discussions with officials.

There had been some suggestions that DeChambeau would pull out of the tournament altogether, with his agent telling reporters: “We'll see if he shows up tomorrow”, before the golfer broke his silence on the matter, posting: “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”, via his X account late on Friday evening (July 17).

A statement from Grant Moir, the R&A's executive director of governance, explained how the rules still apply regardless of whether a player intended to break them.

In a statement, he said: “Rule 8.1 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. I'll stress that this applies even when the action is accidental, as it was in Bryson's case."

DeChambeau was heavily criticised for what some, including Sir Nick Faldo, saw as attention-seeking behaviour, while Rory McIlroy admitted that he was “not particularly fond” of the American, accusing him of “performative” behaviour and “holding the tournament hostage”.

Scheffler weighs in on DeChambeau saga

Scheffler offered his thoughts on the incident, denying that DeChambeau is a “cheater” while calling for stricter policing of the rules.

He said: “All I can really say is I think maybe we need to be a little bit more strict in the way that we are policing guys, but it's a little bit of a balance because you've got certain guys like a Bryson who every shot he hits 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're right there.

“We've done a good job of -- I don't know, 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 a 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.

“I think sometimes it's just a difficult position in the game of golf. When I was growing up, if this was the line between things that were -- like if this was the line, here are the rules and this was the right side of it and this is when you're doing things against the rule, you always tried to stray really far that way. I feel like at times, sometimes you see players maybe push it a little bit further than they should.

“I think we need to kind of get back to the traditions of the game and maybe we do need to police things a little bit more strictly in the game. But like I said, it's a tough line to kind of cross. So that's why it's hard for me to say anything like this. Bryson is a guy that I've known for a really long time. Like I said, he's not a cheater.”

The Open final leaderboard

-10: Ryan Fox

-9: Cameron Young

-8: Sam Burns

-7: Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood

-6: Casey Jarvis, Lucas Herbert, Si Woo Kim

-5: Adam Scott, Russell Henley, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Ludvig Åberg, Ryan Gerard

-4: Corey Conners, Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau