DeChambeau 2 stroke penalty

kyhankypanky

All-American
Mar 21, 2004
4,525
7,900
113
Bryson=LIV=Bad

He deserved the penalty. He improved his shot by stomping down the growth around his ball. Even if it was unintentional (appeared intentional) or accidental, it doesn’t matter. If someone else reported it, you can be mad about that, but it doesn’t invalidate the correctness of the ruling.
 

SenseMaker_Cats

All-American
Jul 3, 2025
1,872
5,842
113
Bryson should have acted like he couldn’t find his ball. Lol Just kidding.

At a U.S. Open for example, if you’re walking around in the long rough looking for your ball and “accidentally” improve your lie, it is not a penalty.
 

Wayne Dougan

All-Conference
Aug 11, 2025
428
1,253
93
Bryson=LIV=Bad

He deserved the penalty. He improved his shot by stomping down the growth around his ball. Even if it was unintentional (appeared intentional) or accidental, it doesn’t matter. If someone else reported it, you can be mad about that, but it doesn’t invalidate the correctness of the ruling.

I'm pretty neutral on Bryson. I wish LIV never happened, but I don't blame the guys for going to get paid. I'd probably root for Bryson over Rory, but it's close.

With that said, my honest take on it is this: The camera angles I saw of him stomping around back there didn't definitively show him knocking down the grass in his swing plane. But it sure as hell looked like they were stomped down which I'm assuming came from him. Scheffler said Bryson has never been a cheat - and I take him at his word on that. Overall, I'm fine with the penalty but I don't think it should stain Bryson's reputation.
 

sefus12

Heisman
Dec 22, 2007
7,186
19,084
103
It still boggles my mind that people act like there’s this black-and-white dynamic between the PGA and LIV. How much money has the PGA made in China? And how many of their sponsors do business in Saudi Arabia? Until both of those are zero, they don’t have near as much of a “holier than thou” leg to stand on as many people think they do.

I honestly didn’t get to watch enough of the Open (was out of town with the Mrs) to pay much attention to the Bryson issue. Looks pretty grey to me (not saying I agree one way or another). The Scotty drop on Sunday kinda boggled my mind, but again, I didn’t care enough to get that deep into the rules to see why he got a drop w/out finding his ball in the first place.
 

BetterThanYou

Senior
Jan 31, 2026
286
493
63
If DeChambeau actually threatened to call Trump during the penalty conversation then he is on the Mt Rushmore of sports douche.
 

wkycatfan7

All-Conference
Oct 16, 2002
9,087
3,297
113
While it's pretty gray, I lean toward DCB was both surveying his situation, and stomping down grass at the same time, with plausible deniability. It's a bit of a reach to assess the penalty. Judgement call by the R&A.