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Trevor Immelman believes that Bryson DeChambeau had no intention of improving his lie during the second round of The Open Championship, but suggested that a new rule is introduced to prevent a similar situation arising in the future.
The inquest into the events that saw DeChambeau receive a two-shot penalty at Royal Birkdale continues.
DeChambeau was penalised after his round on Friday after it was deemed that he had made his approach shot easier with how he stepped around the ball in the thick rough on the fifth hole.
Trevor Immelman reacts to Bryson DeChambeau incident at The Open Championship
In truth, it is no surprise that the situation divided much of the field. Max Homa defended DeChambeau, claiming that the penalty seemed harsh. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy insisted that he knew straight away that something was not right when watching the action live.
What is surely undeniable is that DeChambeau crossed a line with how he reacted to the decision. He left a question mark over whether he would even play in the third round for several hours, while The Telegraph is among the outlets to report that DeChambeau threatened to call President Donald Trump.
Speaking on Fried Egg Golf, Trevor Immelman insisted that there is good evidence to suggest that DeChambeau was not trying to cheat with his actions.
He did, however, back the decision to penalise him.
“The first thing I want to say is, as fans, we’ve known Bryson for more than a decade now. You think about when he won the US Amateur in 2015, standout college player, broke through the ranks quite quickly, won a whole host of tournaments all over, including a couple of US Opens. I think it’s important to acknowledge and have on the record that in all those years, which is more than 10, he has been a polarising figure in the sport, very well known, well documented, and popular and had a large following, and in all that time, I don’t know about you, but I have never seen or read or heard anything about him being cavalier with the rules in any way, shape, or form. I think that’s important to note and to state. He seems to have great respect and honour for the game and for the rules of it,” he said.
“Do I think it was accidental? I do. Do I think that the penalty was probably fair? Yeah, I probably do. It just seemed like the way he went in there, what’s the best way to say this? It seemed like there was a distinct possibility that he had created some room for his backswing. And so, at the end of the day, it’s just like any sport. In this case, the R&A is governing the rules for the week. I can promise you they didn’t take this lightly.
“They were probably stewing over it for a couple hours, looking at all the different angles of video, and that was their conclusion, and that was their decision. There’s nothing more you can say about it at that point.
“Did it look awkward from the angles that we all saw? The grass was so high that he was taking big high steps and stuff was getting trampled down. It was a tough one. And obviously, everything that happened in and around that, the debating back and forth, the players not being able to put their cards in and the tee time’s being delayed coming out, there’s a bit of a mess there towards the end of Saturday evening, which is a little bit unfortunate and disappointing because it was such a great day of golf.”
Trevor Immelman suggests a rule change after Bryson DeChambeau’s penalty
It was difficult not to have some sympathy for DeChambeau initially.
His ball was in the long grass, and that grass was growing in several directions. So it was always going to be extremely difficult for the two-time US Open champion to avoid an issue.
Clearly, he was far too clumsy. His actions left the door open for interpretation.
The incident will surely influence how players behave when their ball ends up in the thick rough in future. While DeChambeau may have done nothing intentionally, there will surely be players who have seen an opportunity to make their lives slightly easier.
And Immelman believes that this incident could lead to a change in the rules, with players given much clearer instructions on what they can do when their ball finds the thick rough.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say it happens a lot. I would say it’s few and far between. Maybe the rule needs to be clarified even more. And players need to know exactly how close they can get, where exactly they can stand,” he said.
“I mean, remember when the rule was adjusted recently about caddies lining you up? And when they could stand behind you, and at what point they needed to be clear of that zone. Maybe it’s something like that that needs to be clarified, because I saw a lot of people online talking about, ‘oh, that’s his routine, he stands behind it’. But just standing that close to the ball behind it to where you’re in long grass and you’re flattening out an area to be able to make a backswing or have a cleaner approach to the ball, that’s obviously a problem.
“And so maybe that needs to be really clarified for these guys a little bit more when they get out of position like that.”
The one positive about the way DeChambeau behaved is the fact that changes are surely going to be made, one way or another.
It was an incident that the R&A would have clearly rather avoided. Meanwhile, DeChambeau should be extremely disappointed in himself.
So it seems inevitable that a new rule will be addressed, whether that concerns how players behave in the rough or when speaking with officials.
