Bryson DeChambeau's split penalty was a bold message to all golfers

SOUTHPORT, England — Your response to Bryson DeChambeau's move to the wild side probably says more about how you feel about Bryson than your knowledge of Rule 8.1a.

Would the R&A have given Rory McIlroy (a former Open Championship winner) or Tommy Fleetwood (a native son of these parts) a two-stroke penalty? No. They are lovely people, here. Each, in their own way, flies the flag for the traditional values ​​of golf, which the R&A holds dear.

Bryson DeChambeau does not. LIV Golf doesn't want to. All this stuff watching me on YouTube doesn't do it. The Laws of Golf seek to remove emotion and turn all situations into two issues: within the rules, or not. In real life, with real people on stage, that can't be done, try as you might.

I'm no expert on Rule 8.1a and I'm ambivalent about Bryson and his me-me-me approach to his public life. It is also true that if we were all cut from the same cloth and put our standards for everything on the next person, the world would be a boring place, Jos catalog. A. Bank multiplied by a billion. Watching the video of DeChambeau in the throes of violence after a lousy 5th hole shot in the second round of the British Open, here at Royal Birkdale, I saw a big and angry man jumping around, maybe losing his balance for half a second, which didn't help. I didn't see the golfer – the star player of the LIV Golf Crushers team – improve his lie or change his backswing to get his second shot. If I had been watching this tragic episode in real time – as an assistant NBC Sports spotter or something like that – no alarms would have gone off.

But I'm more likely to take, honestly and visually, Brandel Chamblee's description of this part of the moment that rocked our green world. Or the interpretation of his Golf Channel colleague, Paul McGinley. Or, and more importantly, the R&A's definition of it.

My partner Dylan Dethier, in a GOLF.com The forum, asked the R&A a tough question about the incident, about what happened and the two penalties DeChambeau was given: Are you sure?

I don't know if anyone at the R&A has answered Dylan, but I can read a little mind here.

Yes!!

The folks at the R&A, based in St. Andrews, Scotland, and the management of this tour, this game and its rules, have no confidence. They are sure of their beliefs. Together, they have a Mensa-level golf IQ. As the chairmen of Augusta National wear bracelets emblazoned with the letters WWBD (What Would Bob Do?), senior R&A officials, as a rite of passage, get a smart tattoo of Old Tom Morris' long white beard. If that doesn't give you the picture, check out Nick Pugh, Lucas Herbert's artist. (You can buy the look, so to speak, here. William Whiteley & Sons Ltd. (they've been purveyors of handmade checks to royalty for a hundred years and then some.) What Old Tom would say here, to his R&A offspring and Bryson and everyone who plays the game at its highest levels, is this: Respect the spirit, lord.

This is the spirit – or part of it: Your golf ball is a ticking time bomb; if you do something wrong with the ball, or the environment, it will blow up in your face. So treat your ball and the surrounding area with the respect it deserves.

And that's what DeChambeau didn't do. I think that is obvious. He was strong. I think that it's obvious. The R&A gave him every opportunity to experience that, that subtle but sensitive thing: You were cavalier when you needed to be careful.

That's why R&A rules officials showed him the video, probably more than once, when he arrived for his Friday round. That's why they took him out in a cart to the crime scene, to give him more time to see the situation for himself. When DeChambeau, a two-time US Open winner and golf disruptor, couldn't do that, the R&A had to do the math for him, adding two strokes to his school. He went from seven to five under.

He can still win this tournament, just as Tiger Woods could have won the 2013 Masters after receiving (I'd say, kindly) a two-shot penalty for taking the wrong drop in his Friday round. DeChambeau, in the Woods tradition, likes to play with a chip on his shoulder. He's already upset (I'm guessing) with Nick Faldo, a two-time Open winner. Theirs contretemps du the day went like this.

Sir Nick: You don't have a proper links-golf strategy, bro.

Mr Bry: Strategy thisdude.

DeChambeau won his first US Open at Winged Foot in 2020 with a body inspired by the Michelin Man or Tiger Woods circa 2007. His strategy was to hit his shot as close to the pin as possible, and no lie scared him – that's how big and strong and good he was. AW Tillinghast (course designer) and Billy Casper (1959 US Open winner there) had to worry, if they had cable or internet access. I was sick too.

But DeChambeau did what he had to do. You tip your cap. It's not his fault that the USGA and the R&A lost the tech battle for elite golfers or that the USGA liked (actually) treeless golf courses. Faldo should have won more US Opens; he was a brilliant fairways-and-greens player. But he didn't. DeChambeau is competing, here in this 154th Open Championship, even by two shots.

That number right there, 154, is the most important one here. This game has been played for a long time, and so has this tournament. The absolute key to Arnold Palmer's off-the-course success is that he never put the game before himself. He had an ego, as we all do. But he always understood that the game and its culture and values ​​were much bigger than him. Jack Nicklaus, same. Old Tom and Young Tom, alike. Bob Jones and Billy Casper and AW Tillinghast, same.

Tiger Woods, I'm not sure about it. In 2013, at an event in Chicago, he caused his ball to move. You could see it. I'd say anyone can see it. Woods was standing over it. It was a ticking time bomb. When Woods wouldn't call a two-shot penalty on himself, the rules official, Slugger White, had to do it for him. It was unfortunate. When Woods made the argument that the wrong rock at the 1999 Phoenix Open was a loose obstacle, and 20 or older men moved it, it was unfortunate. It wasn't golf, and I don't care if the PGA Tour rules officer ruled in his favor. Law enforcement officers make mistakes. Law enforcement officers are afraid. Law enforcement officers are influenced by real world events. Woods should never have asked for it in the first place.

Jon Rahm received a warning from the R&A for what is, when it comes down to it, unsportsmanlike, for swinging the club hard after a shot he didn't like. It's totally worth it. Why? For several reasons, and this is one of them: It disturbs my playing partners, in this case Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Spieth. The main purpose of the rules of golf, the main purpose of the game's emphasis on etiquette, is to try to create equal playing conditions for all players. Do Jordan Spieth and Tommy Fleetwood want to hang around all day for two days wondering when Jon Rahm might have a little meltdown? It's disturbing. It's not fair. It's not golf.

My colleague Jessica Marksbury had a great and wonderful response to Bryson's piece, and it's easy to agree with every word of it. In that same interview with Dylan and Co., Jess wrote this:

“When I look at the videos I've seen, I think Bryson deserves the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't seem like he was deliberately crawling, removing the grass behind the ball or 'improving' his lie in any way. To me, it looked like Bryson caught this shot like any other professional. His reaction to the penalty, although he was too extreme: if he felt like he was playing the ball, he felt like he was playing a role. unfairness – and a dark side to the character his – and he is responding in the right way, I won't say I blame him for his feelings, but I hope he will play and try to win this tournament.

“Besides, I have to say that I also find this deep analysis of the lies and behavior of the players in the milliseconds before the shot to be offensive. Golf should be a game of personal integrity, and to take a microscope to suspected behavior like this – when it is almost impossible for us at home to say what happened, and when hours and doubts have passed since the beginning of the incident.”

It's lovely, it's wonderful – and it's generous.

What the R&A and Jon Rahm did on Friday was a small, if not small, part in making a good game better. What R&A did with Bryson DeChambeau was more than one. In the first instance, treat your teammates with the respect they deserve. Second, treat your ball and the environment with respect it it is appropriate. It's like staying at an old friend's house, at the family beach. That screen door is soft. Everything thing you are soft. You're going to treat it, and leave it, in better shape than you found it, right?

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at [email protected].