Golf Channel goes all-in to cover Bryson DeChambeau's two-stroke penalty at The Open Championship. Credit: Golf Channel Credit: Golf Channel
By Matt Clapp on

Bryson DeChambeau was assessed a two-stroke penalty by the R&A after the second round of The Open Championship on Friday at Royal Birkdale. And after the round, he even suggested that he’s uncertain about playing in the third round on Saturday.

DeChambeau was livid with the ruling and was shown on the USA broadcast as he debated it with rules officials.

As shown on Golf Channel’s post-round coverage, R&A referee Grant Moir explained that DeChambeau was penalized two strokes “for inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing, so intended backswing on the fifth hole when he was playing his second shot.”

That was just a morsel of the DeChambeau post-round coverage on Golf Channel. The network spent over an hour straight focused on that, with press conferences, reports, and analysts breaking down the incident, all while none of it featured DeChambeau’s own commentary. Viewers even got to watch roughly half an hour of DeChambeau hitting golf balls in the dark until — 10:30 p.m. local time — the driving range during this coverage.

Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee, and Paul McGinley covered the story like it was the scandal of the century from the Live From The Open desk.

McGinley and Chamblee made it clear that they agreed with the rules officials and didn’t support DeChambeau’s behavior.

“For me, I think it’s a breach,” McGinley said. “I think the first five seconds when he got to the ball, that’s when the breach happened. He walked up, he saw his lie, and his first thing to do then was to stand behind the ball. And in standing behind the ball, he batted down the grass behind it, which in turn was going to improve his backswing… Bryson is obviously not agreeing with that, very vocally, and in a very stubborn way.”

“He did everything but lay down behind it or take a weed whacker to the tall grass behind it,” Chambleed said. “Multiple infractions. Absolutely condemning. Absolutely clear. I don’t really know what he was arguing about.”

Golf Channel and NBC Sports on-course reporter Smylie Kaufman (who recently had a fun conversation with Larry David) even did a six-plus-minute breakdown from the scene recreating the DeChambeau incident.

Additionally, Golf Channel reporter Todd Lewis spoke with DeChambeau’s agent, Brett Falkoff, off camera. And while DeChambeau was at the driving range, Lewis relayed the message from Falkoff that DeChambeau is uncertain about continuing to play in the tournament on Saturday.

“Bryson DeChambeau, despite him hitting balls right now, still is undecided as to whether or not he is going to continue in this championship,” Lewis said. “He is going to make his decision tomorrow morning as to whether or not he comes out to Birkdale to compete in round number three.”

As Golf Channel continued to show DeChambeau, hitting golf balls well into the night on the driving range, McGinley and Chamblee continued to sound off on the subject.

“It is really hard to stomach the silliness that we’ve seen here from Bryson,” Chamblee said.

Chamblee also referred to DeChambeau’s uncertainty about playing Saturday as “childish.”

“That ain’t gonna happen,” McGinley said in response to the idea that DeChambeau wouldn’t play on Saturday. “The damage to Bryson’s brand, should he do that, would be colossal. There is no way that him or any of his team would let that happen. And anyway, the guy is one shot away from second place in The Open Championship! You don’t walk away from an Open Championship when you’re playing great! That’s not going to happen.”

As McGinley alluded to, DeChambeau is still very much in the running for a major championship with a score of 5-under, three shots off the tournament-leading Lucas Herbert through two rounds. DeChambeau has two major titles (the U.S. Open in 2020 and 2024), but he’s topped out at eighth place in The Open Championship. It would take an unprecedented level of pettiness for DeChambeau to walk away from this opportunity just because he was assessed a two-stroke penalty.

Update: DeChambeau made the following post on X.

“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.”

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.

He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.

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