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Bryson DeChambeau had a terrific second round at the 2026 Open Championship, and yet, he's still facing backlash.
From a confidence standpoint, DeChambeau didn't exactly enter this week's tournament at Royal Birkdale with momentum on his side. After all, he missed the cut for the Masters, PGA Championship and U.S. Open.
Luckily for DeChambeau, he started off the Open Championship with an opening-round 67. He then caught fire on Friday and carded a 4-under 66 in the second round to bring him one stroke back of the leader, Lucas Herbert.
Even though DeChambeau was outstanding this Friday, some fans thought he cheated when one of his shots ended up in the fescue.
"He improved his backswing clearance… so yes he cheated," one fan declared.
"Are we turning a blind eye to Bryson Cheating stamping down long grass that would impede his down swing," a second fan asked.
"Definitely stepped on it to help himself. Very Patrick Reed of him," a third fan wrote.
"Did he purposely step there to knock down the crap on his backswing? Probably. But it also was a pretty natural path to his ball and where else is he supposed to step to get there?" another fan argued.
Proving his critics wrong.
Before the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale even started, six-time major winner Nick Faldo took a huge shot at DeChambeau.
"I'd say it to his face — DeChambeau has zero clue of strategy," Faldo said, via OutKick. "He said last year: 'I'm going to go out and attack the links'. Well, I've never attacked a links [course]. You thread it, don't you? You feed it down the fairway."
Golf analyst Brandel Chamblee also criticized DeChambeau prior to his incredible second round.
"It's almost like he went from chasing Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy to chasing Grant Horvat," Chamblee said. "It's like he wants to outdo every YouTuber in the game of golf instead of outplay everybody in the game of golf."
If DeChambeau ends up winning the Open Championship this weekend, his critics will have nowhere to hide.
