As if the vagaries of links golf weren’t unsettling enough, the chaotic close to Friday’s second round of the Open Championship at baked-out Royal Birkdale added another layer of volatility into the mix.
By now, you know the Bryson DeChambeau saga — his adventure wide right of the par-4 5th hole, the two-shot penalty he was assessed for inadvertently improving his lie, and his reaction to the R&A’s decision, including his threat to pull out of the competition.
Even as the ruling set off a firestorm online, the commotion around it created a logistical ripple effect on the championship itself. With the R&A consumed with other matters, Saturday’s third-round tee times weren’t released until late Friday evening, leaving players waiting to figure out their plans.
England’s Marco Penge at least had the advantage of spending the evening in the comfort of his own home, about an hour from Royal Birkdale.
“Yeah, it was a bit of a joke really,” Penge said after his third round. “I’m staying at home this week, which is an hour away, and not getting a tee time until 11 p.m. is not great, really. We could have at least got a heads up for what the first tee time was going to be. Obviously there was a lot of commotion, so that delayed things.”
Penge wound up getting the 9:45 a.m. tee time alongside Kristoffer Reitan and shooting a third-round 69 to reach one under for the championship. Did the delay affect his play? Penge dismissed that notion but said that some of his peers felt differently.
“No, nothing to do with me,” he said. “But yeah. That’s what some players are like.”
What about the penalty itself? Unlike some prominent voices, including Rory McIlroy, who called the ruling “justified for sure,” Penge treaded around the topic more delicately than DeChambeau walked around his ball.
“I mean, probably shouldn’t give my opinion on it,” Penge said. “Everyone has got their own opinion of the scenario. With it being so burnt out, as well … your club is slipping all over the place, so it’s so easy to make a mistake by accident. I’ll leave that to everyone else.”
When asked whether he thought DeChambeau knew what he was doing, Penge again resisted offering a verdict.
“If I was in that position, I’d just be very careful where I’m standing and how I get into the ball and make sure I don’t improve my lie,” he said. “I would never want anyone to think I was doing that. That’s how I would deal with it.”
Barring another late-night rules drama, Penge will presumably know his Sunday tee time a good deal earlier tonight.
