Bryson DeChambeau walked off Royal Birkdale on Friday with a birdie-birdie finish, a 66 on his card, and a spot one shot off the lead. Then the R&A’s rules people got hold of the number, and it turned into a 68 and a tie for fifth.
DeChambeau was assessed a two-stroke penalty after his second round for inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing at the fifth hole. The R&A said in a statement that DeChambeau trampled down long grass while taking a practice swing before his second shot, flattening vegetation that could have affected his backswing.
“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,” an R&A spokesperson told reporters. “Importantly what the prohibited action here is that the player mustn’t move, bend or break any growing or attached natural object.”
The penalty was formalized more than an hour after DeChambeau finished. It turned his score on the fifth into a triple-bogey 7 and dropped him from 7 under to 5 under for the tournament. DeChambeau went back to the fifth hole for an animated discussion with a rules official. Sky Sports reported he threatened to withdraw. He was later seen on the practice range, indicating he would stay for the weekend — the first time this year he has made a cut at a major.
While DeChambeau’s card was being rewritten, Lucas Herbert was already in the clubhouse with a piece of history. The 30-year-old Australian shot a 62, tying the major championship single-round scoring record and grabbing a two-shot lead at 8-under-par 132.
Herbert needed par at the 18th for the first 61 in major championship history. His 5-foot putt missed centimeters to the left.
“It’s not a great question because I’m too much of an optimist, and I thought it when I hit it to about 5 feet on the third hole,” Herbert said when asked when he believed he could equal or better the record of 62. “I’m a golf nerd anyway, so I know all the numbers, all the records, everything like that.”
Sam Burns matched Herbert’s 62 two groups later, holing out from a greenside bunker at the 18th to cap a birdie-birdie-birdie finish. Burns went out in 2 under and made six birdies on the back nine, including a chip-in at the 16th. The two 62s on Friday brought the all-time major championship total to seven. Branden Grace shot the first at the 2016 Open, also at Royal Birkdale.
“It was in a good spot in the bunker, which you never know what you’re going to get in the pot bunkers here,” Burns said of his finishing shot. “Definitely very lucky for it to go in.”
Herbert leads Cameron Young (67), Ryan Gerard (67), and first-round leader Jackson Suber (69) by two at 6 under. Burns, Si Woo Kim, and DeChambeau sit at 5 under.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler shot a 68 with 16 pars and two birdies, leaving him at 4 under alongside Tommy Fleetwood (67), Robert MacIntyre (69), Alex Fitzpatrick (67), and Jon Rahm (67). Rahm received an official code of conduct warning after throwing a club at the 15th hole and faces a potential two-stroke penalty for any further outburst this weekend.
Rory McIlroy improved five strokes on his opening 72 with a 67, reaching 1 under. Xander Schauffele’s 69 left him at even par and extended his active streak of made cuts at majors to 19.
The cut line was expected to settle at 1 over par. Jordan Spieth’s second-round 77 left him at 10 over, beating only four players who completed 36 holes. Former Open champion Cameron Smith, Wyndham Clark, and Jason Day also missed the weekend.
Sources:
- Yahoo Sports — DeChambeau’s British Open charge hit by two-shot penalty
- Yahoo Sports / Detroit News — Lucas Herbert takes British Open lead during record-tying second round