Bryson DeChambeau was ready to pull every lever he could as a bizarre scene unfolded following the second round of The Open Championship — including placing a phone call to President Donald Trump.
DeChambeau’s first real shot at contention in an Open Championship hit a major speed bump when R&A officials handed him a two-shot penalty after he finished Round 2. Officials deemed DeChambeau had illegally improved his situation in the tall grass at the fifth and docked him two shots. At the time, DeChambeau was poised to start the weekend in the final group. Instead, he faded over the weekend and finished tied for 14th.
Bryson DeChambeau Wanted Help from Donald Trump at Open?
But the real story was everything that happened between the end of his second round and his departure from Royal Birkdale on Friday night. DeChambeau was the focal point of a surreal scene that included a return to the scene of the crime. As he pleaded his case, he apparently tried to get Trump involved.
“Sources with knowledge of the thirty-minute (post-round) discussion said DeChambeau wanted the President to join a campaign against the eventual two-stroke penalty that ultimately dropped his score from 66 to 68,” longtime golf writer Geoff Shackelford wrote for his newsletter The Quadrilateral. “The request came after DeChambeau had already been given a rare bit of special dispensation to return to the scene where he’d stomped around tall fescue rough in his backswing.”
Shackelford is certainly well-connected, but The Daily Mail’s Riath Al-Samarrai confirmed the report, too, for what that is worth.
“Based on phone calls I have had with informed sources, that information is correct,” he wrote the day after the tournament ended. “The threat was made and perhaps the only surprise is that Trump did not wade in — after all, the rules of golf have always been a mysterious concept to the lord of the White House and DeChambeau is his mate.”
It’s unclear just how Trump might have been able to help, although there was no shortage of speculation about his impact on having an American red card rescinded before a recent World Cup match.
Perhaps DeChambeau thought he could get in on that, too. He wouldn’t be the first golfer to confide in Trump when it hit the fan. Bodycam footage captured Tiger Woods telling a police officer he had been “talking to the president” in the moments following his rollover crash in March.
What’s Next for Bryson DeChambeau After Open?
DeChambeau took a measured approach as his weekend came to an end. The two-time major champion once again dodged the media, instead offering a reflection on his play via social media, saying “I was proud of the way I fought.”
DeChambeau’s stay in the UK isn’t yet complete. He and the rest of the LIV Tour will resume their season after a lengthy pause next week at LIV Golf United Kingdom.
DeChambeau is reportedly nearing the end of his contract, and the league could be in peril after losing its financial backing from the Saudi Arabia PIF.
“The nascent league faces a conundrum unlike other entities forced into restructuring: Its most valuable asset—player contracts—is also its most costly liability,” Golf Digest’s Paul Sullivan wrote in June. “So says several financial and legal experts in the investment, business-restructuring and bankruptcy sectors that Golf Digest contacted to learn more about the challenge LIV Golf has as it fights for its future.”
That could mean a potential return to the PGA Tour for DeChambeau, and if that does happen, that could take his rivalry with Rory McIlroy to a new level.
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