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Bryson DeChambeau had a golf tournament to play. Instead, he gave everyone, including Johnson Wagner, a rules controversy to talk about.
The two-time US Open champion was handed a two-shot penalty during his second round at The Open Championship after officials ruled he had improved his lie in the thick rough on the fifth hole at Royal Birkdale. DeChambeau did not take it quietly.
He returned to the scene of the incident with two R&A officials well after his round had wrapped, delaying Saturday’s tee times for the rest of the field. Reports from several outlets, including the Telegraph, claimed DeChambeau even threatened to call President Donald Trump over the ruling.
Now Johnson Wagner has weighed in, and he is not holding back
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Johnson Wagner Calls Bryson DeChambeau’s Open Reaction “Disgraceful”
Speaking on Scorecard on CBS, Wagner made it clear he had zero issue with the actual penalty. It was everything DeChambeau did after that left him stunned.
“I was watching live and saw him step into the shot from that face-on angle, and it was definitely weird. It was like an unnecessary step down onto that piece of fescue,” Wagner said.
Wagner explained that once broadcasters showed a face-on replay, the infraction became impossible to argue. DeChambeau’s stance, he said, clearly affected his takeaway and his downswing. That is what made the meltdown afterward so hard to justify.
“For him to go back out there and make the scene in which he did, I found it incredibly childish. To treat Grant Moir and the head DP World Tour official with the lack of respect that Bryson showed, I thought it was disgraceful,” Wagner added.
Grant Moir, one of the most respected officials in the sport according to Wagner, was on the receiving end of that frustration. Wagner did not think he deserved it.
Here is where it gets complicated. DeChambeau is not just another player on tour. He might be the single biggest reason golf has pulled in a younger audience over the last several years.
That is exactly why Wagner is worried.
Plenty of players have swallowed tough rulings without a scene. Shane Lowry took a penalty last year without protest. Cameron Young called in an official on himself earlier this season at the Cadillac Championship. Neither made it a spectacle.
“If we have a whole generation of Bryson fans that think it’s okay to act that way, then we’re going to be in trouble in 10, 15 years,” Wagner said.
He also pointed out a small but telling detail. DeChambeau’s caddie, Greg Bodine, appeared to glance away during the confrontation, almost as if he already knew what was coming.
Wagner was careful not to turn this into a full takedown, though. He credited DeChambeau with helping build his own broadcasting career, saying he would not have landed his job at CBS without a moment DeChambeau gave him at Pinehurst.
Whether the R&A pursues any further action remains unclear. What is clear is that DeChambeau has already made himself the headline at Royal Birkdale, for reasons that have nothing to do with his golf swing.
“I just want him to maybe next time we see him, walk back some of his comments and maybe apologize for some of the behaviour,” Wagner said.
Ryan Fox’s weekend performance was supposed to be the story of this Open. Instead, it’s a two-shot penalty and the reaction that followed that everyone is still talking about.
