• Golfer punished for flattening grass around shot

• American threatened to pull out of tournament

Bryson DeChambeau believes he would have been “right there for the Claret Jug” if he had not received a two-shot penalty in the Open Championship last week at Royal Birkdale.

DeChambeau made a positive start to last week’s tournament after opening with a 67 and then a 66 on Friday, but his second-round score was later adjusted to 68 after he was handed a retrospective two-stroke penalty at the 5th hole after a video review. The 32-year-old was punished after match officials ruled he had improved the area of his backswing by standing on and flattening some long grass.

After his dubious intervention at the World Cup, the president is now an arbiter of high-level fairway disputes. There’s one word for that: SAD!

For so many of us around the world, the final scenes of the World Cup were a chance to switch off the TV with an eye-roll and observe mildly: “Well, I think that’s quite enough America for us all for a while now.” And yet: there can and must always be more. It is simply the way of things. If you thought the World Cup being carried on to the pitch ahead of Sunday’s final in some kind of Louis Vuitton sex trunk was the nadir of hysterical trashiness in sport, then simply recall the lesson of the past few years and expand your mind. It can always get trashier.

To the parched fairways of Royal Birkdale, then, the host of this year’s Open Championship, which – yesssssss! – was won by someone other than Bryson DeChambeau or Scottie Scheffler or any of the other radioactively ghastly US golfers you’d cheerfully head-flush in a Mar-a-Lago loo just as long as you could clear the classified documents out of it first. It has now been revealed that, during his heated row over a two-shot penalty he was handed for improving the area for his backswing, DeChambeau has been accused of threatening to call the US president unless it was all resolved in his favour. To repeat: threatening to call Donald Trump.

Petulant reaction to a justified two-stroke penalty at the Open illustrates why the American is happier on the LIV tour

The potential for stigma was laid bare close to the conclusion of Saturday at the Open Championship. “Bryson, ya cheat,” a lone voice bellowed from the stand adjacent to Royal Birkdale’s 18th green. This is an environment in which being unfaithful to one’s spouse would be seen as preferable to breaching the sacred rules of a sacred game.

By Sunday the world No 1, Scottie Scheffler, was riding to the defence of Bryson DeChambeau. “I’ve known him for a long time and he’s a lot of things, but he’s definitely not a cheater,” Scheffler said. Except in this case, nuance is required. No one in authority has actually accused DeChambeau of cheating for the incident which incurred a two-stroke penalty. The R&A’s executive director of governance stipulated that DeChambeau’s action when breaching the rules during round two was “accidental”.

• DeChambeau given two-stroke penalty after his second round

• Golfer alleged to have used US president’s name during row

Bryson DeChambeau has been accused of threatening to call Donald Trump during a row with senior R&A officials on Friday after the American golfer was handed a two-shot penalty at the Open.

DeChambeau’s alleged use of the US president’s name as he argued his case marks the latest bizarre turn in what was already the dominant story of the 2026 Open. DeChambeau was handed a two-stroke penalty for improving the line of his swing by standing on long grass behind his ball on Royal Birkdale’s fifth hole during round two. The 32-year-old argued his case furiously, including insisting upon returning to the scene of the incident with the R&A’s head of governance and a senior referee.

Even if he does not lift the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale, the American will still be the player everyone is talking about

Whip, crack, whoosh, Bryson DeChambeau’s opening shot flies into the distance, pitches, skips, and tumbles into the rough left of the fairway. By the time DeChambeau has reached the ball a big crowd has gathered around it, they’re standing on tiptoes, perched on mounds, tilting sideways to peer around the people in front, who are pressed right up against the ropes and even spilling underneath them and on to the playing area where the marshals, hands out, are trying to usher them back.

“Careful Bryson!” someone shouts out as he wades into the rough and, it never takes much, everyone breaks out laughing. Looking around, you notice how many people are watching all this through their phones. I start counting: one, five, 10, 20, 50 – people don’t just want to see DeChambeau play golf, they want to be able to show everyone they know that they’ve done it. Did you even go to the Open if you didn’t get to see him?

• ‘I won’t defend Bryson – I’m not fond of him’

• Masters champion says rival’s actions ‘not a good look’

Rory McIlroy has accused a “performative” Bryson DeChambeau of “holding the tournament hostage” after the incredible scenes which marked the end of the American’s second round at the Open.

DeChambeau’s antics were matched in noteworthy terms by the scathing sentiment of McIlroy on Saturday. “I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson,” said McIlroy. “I’m not particularly fond of him.”

• American’s participation over weekend was in doubt

• DeChambeau: ‘I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is’

Bryson DeChambeau’s ongoing participation in the Open Championship was in doubt until after midnight on Friday, after extraordinary scenes at the conclusion of the 32-year-old’s second round at Royal Birkdale.

DeChambeau was handed a two-stroke penalty for improving the line of his swing in thick rough, with the scenario prompting a furious response from the American. The sanction shifted DeChambeau out of second place – one stroke behind the leader, Lucas Herbert – and left him in a tie for fifth.

• American responds to six-time major winner’s jibe

• Surprise name at top of leaderboard

From no clue and no strategy to no explanation. Who or what is eating Bryson DeChambeau? Maybe the coming days will reveal all. Then again …

A fine and widely unexpected start to the 154th Open Championship was not sufficient to alter DeChambeau’s uncommunicative approach towards anybody who may not be inclined to tickle his tummy. Following a fifth major round in a row, DeChambeau declined the opportunity to speak to eagerly assembled media. One once so garrulous has lost his tongue.

• American world No 1 among those shooting 3-under 67s

• Rory McIlroy finishes on four-over after four straight bogeys

It was gridlock on the opening day of the US PGA, where the leaderboard was backed up like Philly traffic. By the time it was all over, seven men were tied in the lead on three under par, and another 42 were within three shots of them. Altogether, a third of the field was within easy reach of the lead. It was record for a major championship, and they have been playing them since 1860. There are 16 major winners spread among them, including, ominously for everyone else, that man Scottie Scheffler. All the talk before the tournament was that it would be a turkey shoot, but it turned out to be one long tailback. The only thing missing was the traffic police.

Actually they had one of them, too, or something near enough. A rules official on the 1st tee gave the 27-year-old South African Garrick Higgo a two-shot penalty for arriving 30 seconds late from the practice green. He still shot a 69. The really odd thing was that in a field where even a man who dropped two shots because he missed his tee time managed to end the day in contention, a couple of the biggest names in the game wound up all but out of it.

The two-time major champion has mused about life as a full-time streamer. But sport should be more than just a platform to grow an athlete’s brand

Golf: a feeder sport for aspiring YouTubers? When Bryson DeChambeau, faced with the expiry of his LIV Golf contract at the end of this year and the implosion, possibly even sooner, of the now Saudi-less LIV Golf, mused last week that he might give up life on tour to focus on his YouTube channel, most professional golf watchers scoffed. This was just a bluff, a move to gain leverage as DeChambeau, like every other LIV player, contemplates an uncertain future and negotiates the fraught path back to the PGA Tour.

“I think, from my perspective, I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more,” DeChambeau said. “I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I’d love to play tournaments that want me.”

• World No 2 is not against return: ‘Just good business’

• Circuit’s future is uncertain after Saudi withdrawal

• DeChambeau has denied claims of PGA Tour talks

Rory McIlroy is no longer opposed to LIV Golf players returning to the PGA Tour, but he said Friday that “it’s a question of if they do want to come back”.

McIlroy said the answer will probably depend on what happens with LIV’s financial situation in the coming months.

US star is still on rebel tour but the desired focus on teams is not something that is catching on with supporters

Moments before Bryson DeChambeau teed off to open LIV Golf’s first American tournament of the year, at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, the public address announcer bellowed “Long! LIV! Golf!” to try and electrify a modest crowd by the first tee.

The irony wasn’t lost on the devoted group who skirted work and school to enjoy a sunny afternoon just 40 miles outside Washington DC: this was the first tournament since the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund confirmed it would no longer fund the outfit that it once imagined as the world’s premier collection of professional golfers. Before that news was finalized, the league postponed a tournament scheduled to take place in New Orleans at the end of June.

• Circuit’s future is uncertain after Saudi withdrawal

• Two-time major champion also criticizes PGA Tour

Bryson DeChambeau insists he would focus on his YouTube channel should LIV Golf not survive.

The future of the Saudi-backed breakaway remains in doubt after the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced plans to withdraw financing at the end of the year, having spent more than $5.4bn on the venture since 2022.

Can LIV find new backers and what are the options for Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Lee Westwood and others?

Confirmation that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will cease funding the LIV Golf tour will have huge ramifications, for the future of the tour itself, the players and across golf’s traditional heartlands. Where does PIF’s withdrawal leave them all?

• LIV chief’s rallying email to staff did not refer to 2027

• Without alternative funding future is bleak for rebel tour

Several of golf’s leading names are facing career limbo at the end of 2026 amid expectation Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will withdraw backing for the LIV Tour.

While the likelihood is Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm will be afforded a pathway back to the PGA Tour, the future for others who made lucrative switches to LIV is far more uncertain.