'He's Not A Cheater' - Scottie Scheffler Gives Measured Take On Bryson DeChambeau Rules Penalty
The World No.1 was playing alongside Bryson DeChambeau when the LIV star received a two-stroke penalty at The Open, and he gave his thoughts to media on the situation...
Scottie Scheffler said he had thoughts but wasn't ready to share them on Saturday, 24 hours after playing alongside Bryson DeChambeau when the LIV star received a two-stroke penalty for inadvertently improving his swing in the rough. Now he has given some of them.
Scheffler was in the recorder's hut late on Friday at Royal Birkdale alongside DeChambeau, and two days later he gave media his brief thoughts on the situation with a very measured response.
The World No.1, who came up short in defending his Claret Jug but finished T4th to continue his incredible Major form, said golfers need to be policed a little stricter but made it clear that DeChambeau is 'definitely not a cheater.'
"I've been really focused on the tournament. I think that opens up a greater discussion that - all I can really say is I think maybe we need to be a little bit more strict in the way that we are policing guys, but it's a little bit of a balance because you've got certain guys like a Bryson who every shot he hits is going to be shown on TV," Scheffler said on Sunday evening at Birkdale.
"When you have camera angles that are far away, things can look different than they do when you're right there. I hate saying stuff out here because I don't want anything to get taken out of context.
"All I'll say is Bryson, I've known him for a long time, and he's a lot of things, but he's definitely not a cheater.
"I've never seen him cheat once, whether we were having a putting contest on the putting green or chipping contest, or anytime we played amateur golf, I never saw anything suspicious.
"When you're watching him there from that camera angle, maybe he was a touch careless around his ball, but I don't think he did anything intentionally.
"We've seen penalties happen with - like you remember Jon Rahm a couple years ago at the Memorial when his ball moved in the rough, and it's like to the naked eye, can you really tell that?
"I think sometimes it's just a difficult position in the game of golf.
"When I was growing up, if this was the line between things that were - like if this was the line, here are the rules and this was the right side of it and this is when you're doing things against the rule, you always tried to stray really far that way.
"I feel like at times, sometimes you see players maybe push it a little bit further than they should.
"I think we need to kind of get back to the traditions of the game and maybe we do need to police things a little bit more stricter in the game.
"But like I said, it's a tough line to kind of cross. So that's why it's hard for me to say anything like this.
"Bryson is a guy that I've known for a really long time. Like I said, he's not a cheater."
Scheffler was involved in his own rules confusion on Sunday, as he received a free drop despite losing his ball in a Temporary Immovable Object.
He found a hospitality unit down the left of the 17th and was allowed free relief due to it being 'known or virtually certain' that his ball had finished there.
DeChambeau ended the tournament in T14th after a two-over-par 72 on Sunday. It marks the first cut he has made in the 2026 Majors and is his third top-15 in The Open from nine starts.
