Max Homa: Bryson DeChambeau would never cheat

PGA Tour star Max Homa said Bryson DeChambeau would ‘never cheat the game of golf’.

After round three of The Open Championship, Homa said that he didn’t agree with the ruling that gave DeChambeau a two-shot penalty following the conclusion of the second round at Royal Birkdale.

The former US Ryder Cupper said he hoped that the situation ‘doesn’t create a narrative’.

Here is what Homa said when asked by NCG’s Matt Chivers if he believed the ruling was fair:

“I’m not really, I guess, wanting to be able to decide on fair, because they’re the rules officials. I only saw one angle, and in my opinion I didn’t agree with the ruling,” Homa said after shooting a 67 in round three.

“I know there’s another angle that – side on, it’s always hard to tell if it improves anything. All I know is 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.

“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.”

After Friday’s play, when DeChambeau had shot a 66 and was one shot behind leader Lucas Herbert after 36 holes, footage circulated online of DeChambeau’s movement around his ball in long grass on the 5th hole at this famous Southport links.

He made a bogey, but after the round, it was deemed by the R&A that he was penalised two strokes for inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing, so the intended backswing when he was playing his second shot. His score on the hole became a triple-bogey 7. It was stressed that his actions were accidental.

DeChambeau, who has missed three cuts at all three majors this year, posted on social media later that he disagreed with the ruling. He started the third round three shots off the leader, Herbert.

After the ruling, it was reported that DeChambeau was considering not playing on Saturday, but those worries did not materialise. He went on the range after he was docked two shots, hit balls until after 10 pm, and was reported to be humming, whistling, and offering food to media members.

Here is the full rule:

Rule 8.1. refers to the player’s actions that improve the conditions affecting the stroke. To support the principle of ‘play the course as you find it’, the rule restricts what a player may do to improve any of these protected ‘conditions affecting the stroke’ for the next stroke the player will make:

• The lie of the player’s ball at rest,
• The area of the player’s intended stance,
• The area of the player’s intended swing,
• The player’s line of play, and
• The relief area where the player will drop or place a ball.

Here was the statement by the R&A’s Grant Moir:

Bryson has been penalised two strokes for inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing, so intended backswing on the 5th hole when he was playing his second shot.

Basically, I’m going to explain the technicalities of the rule here for you. Ruling 1 restricts what a player may do to improve any of the protected conditions affecting the stroke, and this includes the area of the player’s intended swing. So an improvement means to alter one or more of the conditions affecting the stroke so that the player gains a potential advantage for the stroke.

Now, I’ll stress that this applies even when the action is accidental, as it was in Bryson’s case. The area of intended swing includes the entire area that might reasonably affect any part of the backswing, the downswing or the completion of the swing for the intended stroke, and importantly, what the prohibited action here is that the player mustn’t move, bend or break any growing or attached natural object.

A player is allowed to fairly take their stance by taking reasonable actions to get to the ball and take a stance, if in some situations that improves the condition affecting the stroke, but when doing so, the player must take the least intrusive course of action to deal with the particular situation and is not entitled to a normal stance or swing.

I would reiterate this rule applies even when there’s no intention to improve the area, as was the case with Bryson.

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