During the second round of The Open Championship, DeChambeau carded a 4-under 66 that pushed him to 7 under and just one shot off the lead.

But by the time he finished signing his card, though, rules officials flagged a sequence from the fifth hole earlier in the round, reviewed the footage, and hit him with a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie.

His 66 became a 68. His spot in Saturday's final pairing was gone. And DeChambeau, never one to let a grievance go unspoken, let his socials do the talking a few hours later.

Just after midnight in England, DeChambeau's Instagram account posted a carousel of eight photos from the round, captioned simply: "Onto the weekend…"

Two of the images were clearly aimed at the controversy. One showed a cutout photo of DeChambeau hovering over a patch of fescue grass at Birkdale's 5th hole, captioned "walking into the weekend like…"

In another photo, DeChambeau was seen with a pair of R&A officials, taken during the after-the-round walk-through when he and rules staff drove back out to the hole to re-examine the scene.

DeChambeau's only blemish of the day comes after a wayward tee shot on the par-4 5th, which sailed well right into thick, knee-high rough. After finding the ball, he took a series of practice swings and shuffled around the area.

In doing so, it appeared to the officials that he might be pressing down some of the grass around and behind the ball in the process. DeChambeau then hacked his approach out long of the green, failed to get up-and-down, and made bogey — his only bogey of the round.

It wasn't until after he'd signed for 66 that the incident resurfaced. Video from the broadcast showed the footwork around the ball clearly enough that officials wanted a second look.

DeChambeau was pulled aside and driven back out to the 5th with rules staff to walk through exactly what had happened.

The conversation, by all accounts, got heated — arms folded, hands pointing, DeChambeau visibly frustrated as he pleaded his case for the better part of 15 to 20 minutes. It didn't work.

The R&A ruled he had improved the area of his intended backswing, a breach of Rule 8.1.

What the R&A Said About the Ruling

The R&A ruled he had improved the area of his intended backswing, a clear breach of Rule 8.1.

Grant Moir, the R&A's executive director of governance, said a penalty under Rule 8-1 applied even when it happened accidentally, 'as it was in Bryson's case'.

"What the prohibited action here is that the player mustn't move, bend or break any growing or attached natural object," Moir told reporters, per PGA Tour.com.

"A player is allowed to fairly take their stance by taking reasonable actions to get to the ball and take a stance ... but when doing so, the player must take the least intrusive course of action to deal with the particular situation and is not entitled to a normal stance or swing."

His bogey 5 was changed to a triple-bogey 7, his round recalculated from 66 to 68, and his tournament score dropped from 7 under to 5 under — three shots behind new leader Lucas Herbert instead of one.

DeChambeau was visibly frustrated with the decision as he completely avoided the media session and told the reporters: "Are you guys having a great night? I'm having a great night," after his round.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida