Scottie Scheffler has called for “stricter” rules after the Bryson DeChambeau controversy at The Open but insists his Ryder Cup teammate is not a cheater.
DeChambeau was left furious after being hit with a two-shot penalty late on Friday night after concluding his round and initially sitting one shot off the lead with a second-round 66.
But the American was judged to have inadvertently improved the line of his swing by trampling on long grass close to his ball at Royal Birkdale, leading to a three-shot deficit to Lucas Herbert at the half-way stage.
Despite Rory McIlroy criticising DeChambeau for what he deemed to be “performative” behaviour, Scheffler opted against providing an honest view on the incident on Saturday, instead preferring to concentrate on defending his title, but after concluding his championship with a fourth-round 67 to sit in a tie for fourth, the four-time major winner called for change.
“I think that opens up a greater discussion,” Scheffler said. “I can really say is I think maybe we need to be a little bit more strict in the way that we are policing guys, but it’s a little bit of a balance because you’ve got certain guys like a Bryson who every shot he hits is going to be shown on TV. When you have camera angles that are far away, things can look different than they do when you’re right there.
“We’ve done a good job of — I don’t know, I hate saying stuff out here because I don’t want anything to get taken out of context. All I’ll say is Bryson, I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s a lot of things, but he’s definitely not a cheater. I’ve never seen him cheat once, whether we were having a putting contest on the putting green or chipping contest, or anytime we played amateur golf, I never saw anything suspicious.
“When you’re watching him there from that camera angle, maybe he was a touch careless around his ball, but I don’t think he did anything intentionally.
“I think sometimes it’s just a difficult position in the game of golf. When I was growing up, if this was the line between things that were — like if this was the line, here are the rules and this was the right side of it and this is when you’re doing things against the rule, you always tried to stray really far that way. I feel like at times, sometimes you see players maybe push it a little bit further than they should.
“I think we need to kind of get back to the traditions of the game and maybe we do need to police things a little bit more stricter in the game. But like I said, it’s a tough line to kind of cross. So that’s why it’s hard for me to say anything like this. Bryson is a guy that I’ve known for a really long time. Like I said, he’s not a cheater.”
