SOUTHPORT – Rory McIlroy saved one of his best shots at the British Open on Saturday for Bryson DeChambeau.
The world No. 2 didn’t hold back when asked for his thoughts on DeChambeau’s conduct late Friday, when the American was involved in a lengthy, heated post-round exchange with rules officials as they reviewed whether he had inadvertently improved the path of his swing on the fifth hole.
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DeChambeau was penalized two shots and there were doubts over whether he would show up for the weekend. The extraordinary late-evening scenes also delayed the release of the tee times for Saturday’s third round.
“I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson,” McIlroy told reporters after shooting a 1-under 69 in the third round. “I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it is performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention."
“To hold the tournament hostage like that,” McIlroy continued, “and to have all of us — players, volunteers, everyone — waiting on him to depart, I didn’t feel like it was a great look.”
McIlroy said he watched the initial incident live with a few other players and felt DeChambeau's actions “didn’t seem right.”
“I think there’s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing,” McIlroy said. “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.”
Other players were more diplomatic when discussing the incident.
“If I was in that position, I’d just be very careful where I’m standing and how I get into the ball and make sure I don’t improve my lie," said English player Marco Penge, who was among the golfers to post on X late Friday about his frustrations about the tee times being published so late. “Yeah, I would never want anyone to think I was doing that. That’s how I would deal with it.”
Former Open champion Xander Schauffele said DeChambeau could have been given “the benefit of the doubt.”
“He said he didn’t do it intentionally and it’s unfortunate that he got penalized because he was playing incredibly well and obviously he’s still playing incredibly well,” Schauffele said, “so he’s obviously going to have something to prove these next two days.”
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf