Sir Nick Faldo has continued his criticism of Bryson DeChambeau, saying the US star “wants to be the centre of attention”.
The American received a two-shot penalty after inadvertently improving the line of his swing by trampling on long grass, leading to extraordinary scenes as DeChambeau got into a heated argument with a rules official.
There were question marks as to whether the LIV Golf star would play in round three, but DeChambeau arrived and shot a 69 to be four back from the lead.
Faldo, who has won The Open three times, agreed with the officials to punish DeChambeau and criticised his behaviour.
“You cannot remove anything in your intended swing path.
“It was totally inadvertent, but it has nothing to do with that; it has nothing to do with Bryson, but he is a golfer that has put his foot down and moved the grass. It is in the rule book.
“The R&A handled it beautifully. Bottom line – job done. ‘Sorry mate, you’ve got a two-shot penalty’,” he told Sky Sports.
Regarding his behaviour with the rules official, Faldo said: “He lost the plot for a couple of minutes. The video is pretty factual.
Sir Nick Faldo said Bryson DeChambeau ‘wants to be the centre of attention’
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“He wants to be the centre of attention. But no player is bigger than the game. Jack [Nicklaus], Arnold [Palmer] have left the arena and golf has gone on. Tiger [Woods] has gone quiet, golf has gone on.
“Once you’re done, golf goes on. If he disappeared tomorrow, we’ll say that was tough, but we will go on.”
Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley also agreed with the officials, saying: “He was blase with the rules.
“The rules are very clear. The line of swing is really important, particularly in this long grass.
DeChambeau has come under fire for his behaviour at The Open
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“When you do that you are inviting comment, inviting rules officials to get involved and, rightly so, they did.
“It was disappointing it played out in such a public forum. In most places it would have been done behind closed doors.
“In trying to be as fair as they could they went back to the fifth, but his belligerence was another issue. The acceptance of it is where Bryson got it wrong.”
Rory McIlroy had some fierce words to say for himself about DeChambeau, accusing the American of holding the tournament “hostage”.
McIlroy had some harsh words to say about the American
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He said: “I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention.
“To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn’t feel like it was a great look.
“I was watching it live. I was up in the players’ lounge watching it with a few other players, and as soon as he made the step into the ball, we all sort of looked at each other and were like ‘that didn’t seem right’.
“Then when I heard that he was called in by the rules officials, it was pretty obvious why. I think there’s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing.
“Whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don’t think it matters. Hopefully it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.”
