Bryson DeChambeau reportedly sought to telephone President Donald Trump during a heated half-hour standoff with R&A officials at the Open Championship, hoping the leader of the free world might somehow rescue him from a two-stroke penalty.
The extraordinary request, first reported by respected golf journalist Geoff Shackelford in his “Quadrilateral” Substack, emerged during tense discussions that also involved R&A chief executive Mark Darbon.
Officials refused to permit the call.
The American’s appeal to presidential authority came just days after Trump had successfully pressured FIFA into overturning a World Cup suspension, raising the tantalising prospect that the White House might attempt to meddle in golf’s oldest championship.
Bryson DeChambeau demanded he be allowed to speak to Donald Trump after receiving a two-shot penalty at The Open
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X/@CPowers14
It did not come to pass. The penalty remained, and DeChambeau’s protestations proved entirely fruitless.
DeChambeau was found to have breached Rule 8.1 during Friday’s second round, penalised for inadvertently improving his lie in heavy rough on the fifth hole.
The infraction transformed what had been a bogey into a triple bogey, and his impressive 66 was retrospectively altered to a 68.
When officials presented him with video evidence of the transgression — footage that many observers, Rory McIlroy among them, have since described as conclusive — DeChambeau was unmoved.
He insisted on being escorted back to the precise spot where the incident occurred, where he engaged in an angry confrontation with Grant Moir, the R&A’s chief rules official.
DeChambeau has come under fire for his behaviour at The Open | REUTERS
At one point during the exchange, he declared: “I just won’t play tomorrow.”
That threat, too, proved hollow.
The precedent that made DeChambeau’s request something other than pure fantasy was Trump’s intervention in the FIFA World Cup earlier this summer. The President had telephoned FIFA president Gianni Infantino to lobby for the reversal of a red card handed to American striker Folarin Balogun during a group-stage victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
FIFA initially maintained the suspension could not be altered, yet White House pressure prevailed. Balogun’s punishment was downgraded, permitting him to feature in the knockout round against Belgium.
The R&A, it transpires, was braced for a similar approach from Washington.
On Saturday, Darbon was asked directly whether Trump had been in touch. “No,” he replied. “I have not received a call from president Trump, and we’ll see what happens from here.”
Bryson DeChambeau had hoped for an intervention from Donald Trump like his phone call to Gianni Infantino over Folarin Balogun’s red card
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The financial toll was substantial. DeChambeau finished the championship at four under par, tied for fourteenth place. Without the two-stroke sanction, he would have sat at six under, securing a top-six finish worth approximately £450,000.
Instead, he collected $234,325 — a difference exceeding $300,000.
DeChambeau’s relationship with Trump is well documented. The pair regularly play golf together, the President has appeared on DeChambeau’s YouTube channel, and the LIV Golf star sits on Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.
Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau have not looked eye to eye for some years | GETTY
He celebrated his 2024 US Open triumph alongside the Trump family.
Fellow professionals were unsparing. McIlroy accused DeChambeau of “holding the Open hostage” and dismissed his prolonged protest as “performative.”
