Rory McIlroy has delivered a stinging shot at Bryson DeChambeau over his “performative” behaviour after a controversial two-shot penalty at The Open on Friday.
The Masters champion also accused the American of holding The Open hostage, with players and officials waiting on him to settle his dispute over the rules infringement before third round tee times were released at 11pm BST.
Justin Thomas and Marco Penge, who labelled the situation a “joke,” were among the players upset at a lack of clarity over the Saturday schedule, due to the hold-up surrounding the drama involving DeChambeau.
And McIlroy, who refused to speak to DeChambeau at last year’s Masters, was highly critical of DeChambeau’s actions, having reportedly threatened to pull out of the tournament and not return for Saturday’s third round in protest.
“Late night for everyone,” said McIlroy. “I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention.
“To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn’t feel like it was a great look.”
DeChambeau objected to a two-stroke penalty imposed after a round of 66 for improving the area of his backswing by standing on a large tuft of high grass at Royal Birkdale.
He requested to be driven out to the scene of the incident on the fifth hole where he spent a lengthy period remonstrating with officials before returning to the scoring compound for further discussions.
The American then heading to the practice ground – with murmurings about him possibly pulling out of the tournament – to hit balls for almost an hour until he left at 10.30pm.
There has been plenty of debate about the rights and wrongs about the infringement but the general consensus was that the R&A were correct.
McIlroy added: “I was watching it live. I was up in the players’ lounge watching it with a few other players and as soon as he made the step into the ball we all sort of looked at each other, and we were like, ‘That didn’t seem right’.
“Then when I heard that he was called in by the rules officials it was pretty obvious for why.
“I think there’s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing. 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.”
While the two-shot penalty dented DeChambeau’s prospects, dropping him from second place on seven under and one off the lead, it was not as damaging to him as McIlroy’s struggles on the greens were to the six-time major winner.
Highlight of his round of 69, leaving him two under for the tournament and out of contention, was a 348-yard drive just short of the ninth green and a chip in for eagle, which left the Northern Irishman looking somewhat bemused.
“It was a little scrappy in areas. I feel like I could have probably shot 67 or 66 and if I’m three back of Foxy (clubhouse leader Ryan Fox on eight under) going into tomorrow I feel like I have a legitimate chance,” said McIlroy.
“But I’m three back of that. I probably feel like I’m a little too far behind.
“Never say never. If I go out tomorrow and get to double digits, you never know, but I certainly am not going out tomorrow thinking like I’ve got a great chance to win.
“I feel like my speed (on the greens) has just never quite been right for the entire week, and when your speed’s not right, it’s obviously hard to hole putts.”
PA contributed to this report.
