DeChambeau: Open penalty cost me Claret Jug shot
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- DeChambeau received a retrospective two-shot penalty at Royal Birkdale's fifth hole after officials ruled he improved his backswing area by flattening long grass, turning what had been a bogey into a triple bogey.
- The penalty dropped DeChambeau from second to fifth on the leaderboard; he played through with rounds of 69 and 72 to finish tied 14th at 4 under, six shots behind champion Ryan Fox (10 under).
- DeChambeau said holes five and 11 cost him six shots combined, insisting he would have been "right there for the Claret Jug" without the penalty.
- Rory McIlroy publicly accused DeChambeau of "keeping the tournament hostage" and called his extended protest "performative" and "for attention," adding he's "not particularly fond of him."
- World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, asked about McIlroy's comments ahead of the 3M Open, declined to pile on, saying he's "never been a big fan of personal jabs."
- The tied 14th was DeChambeau's strongest major finish since he finished runner-up to Scheffler at the 2025 PGA Championship, ending a run of three consecutive missed cuts in majors.
Why it matters: The penalty turned a top-of-leaderboard contender into a also-ran, but the real fallout is interpersonal: McIlroy publicly broke locker-room etiquette to brand DeChambeau a hostage-taker and attention-seeker, while Scheffler — the player DeChambeau chased at the PGA — chose restraint, exposing a clear split among golf's elite on how far competitive grievances should go.
