The American was denied a free drop during the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational
Social Media Reacts After DeChambeau Denied Free Drop From Red Ants
Bryson's ball was resting up against some twigs and a tree root and he was seen telling the official that he could see a red ant, although the official was having none of it.
The official, Ken Tackett, said that he didn't see any fire ants to deem it a dangerous shot to play.
If there were dangerous fire ants present, DeChambeau could have been given relief.
The rules state that: A “dangerous animal condition” exists when a dangerous animal (such as poisonous snakes, stinging bees, alligators, fire ants or bears) near a ball could cause serious physical injury to the player if he or she had to play the ball as it lies."
"Yeah, that was weird," DeChambeau said about the incident after his round.
"So there was discoloured dirt and I saw a couple red ants there and I was thinking, hmm, anthill, may get something or whatnot.
"Asked him and he was like, well, it's got to be, you know, kind of endangering you. And I was, just an anthill.
"So there was just discussion there and he didn't think it was necessary for a drop, so I'm always going to respect the officials and go, okay, no issue, that's fine.
"Didn't help that I had a really, really bad lie, too, but one of those -- I had two twigs lodged in between my ball. Is what it is."
Bryson's red ant moment caused a storm on social media, and CBS, the host broadcaster, eventually deleted their tweet featuring a video of the incident.
DeChambeau shot a three under par 69 on day one in Memphis.
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