Players react to 'tough' penalty for Bryson DeChambeau at The Open 2026

SOUTHPORT, England – Bryson DeChambeau is the talk of 154th British Open after being penalized two strokes for violating Rule 8.1 on the fifth hole Friday during the second round.

As early finishers have made their way to the Mixed Media Zone for questioning, they have been asked what they make of the R&A docking Dechambeau for his infraction of improving his swing from the penalty area.

“It’s a tough one,” said Xander Schauffele, the 2024 Open champion. “He’s just stepping in how you’d normally step in to hit a golf shot. I think the R&A said something along the lines of whether it’s intentional or not, it’s still a penalty.

“Obviously, when you’re in high brush, kind of having to dance around to get to your golf ball is a tricky thing. It’s not something we’re used to doing that often. You imagine you give him 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, so he’s obviously going to have something to prove these next two days.”

Russell Henley, who has called penalties on himself on multiple occasions during his career, echoed the same sentiment.

“It’s tough in the moment to take it no matter. But I would rather know that I did something wrong and be penalized for it than – I’d like to know. It’s unfortunate, but I think everybody should be held accountable for the same rules. The issue with that to me is the fact that he’s on TV every shot. If I played that hole yesterday, you might not have seen – and I did the same thing, maybe they don’t penalize me because maybe they don’t see me do it. That’s the tough part; he’s on TV every single shot.”

Max Homa said he only viewed one angle of DeChambeau approaching his ball but he disagreed with the ruling.

“I’ve known Bryson for a very long time, and he’s an interesting human at times, but I know he would never cheat the game of golf. I don’t really love how it happened. It’s not that the R&A said that he did it intentionally, but that rule as a professional golfer feels like it’s written inherently to protect against people trying to improve their lie. So I just hope that people don’t have that – that doesn’t create a narrative because I don’t believe that of him,” Homa said. “But again, I’m not going to sit here – it’s really hard to tell anything. So yeah, that one is not up for me to judge. But it’s a shame how that ruling feels because it seems like – we were talking about it this morning. It’s like you would try to call somebody out in junior golf because you could tell they were stomping around the ball. It didn’t look like that to me. But that’s not up to me. I just don’t think that’s in his character, so it’s a shame I think that’s kind of how it’s being portrayed to some.”

English pro Marco Penge didn’t want to opine on the subject but then did, expressing the importance of being careful with the rough so burned out.

“I remember day one, four times on the front nine I was in the semi-rough and I didn’t ground the club or get anywhere near it because your club is slipping all over the place, so it’s so easy to make a mistake by accident,” he said. “Yeah, that one was – I’ll leave that to everyone else.”

Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.