It seems that every single week that Bryson Dechambeau steps into a tee box now, he’s bound to argue some type of rules violation. And that trend held true after just the first round of the WGC- FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
In the last event that Dechambeau played, The Memorial, he was caught in a controversy about whether his ball was in play or not after a few errant tee shots found him right on the boundary. After calling over two Rules Officials to voice his claim, DeChambeau was denied relief and ended up scoring a 10 on that hole. Now he’s back, just two weeks later, making another plea to rules officials that fell on deaf ears.
Playing the 7th hole at TPC Southwind during his first round this week at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Bryson hit a tee shot that ended up in some pine straw to the left of the fairway. Once there, he claimed to see a bunch of fire ants and what he called an “animal hole.” Under the rules, players are to be granted relief in the event they could receive interference from a dangerous animal. Well, that wasn’t how the rules officials saw it.
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Ironically enough for DeChambeau, the rules official that was called to help him with this situation was Ken Tackett, the same official DeChambeau argued with back at The Memorial. And Tackett disagreed with DeChambeau’s analysis, just like he did two weeks ago. Tackett claimed that he could not see the fire ants and didn’t see the hole nearby as qualifying as an animal hole. DeChambeau was forced to play and registered a double bogey on the hole.
“Yeah, that was weird,” he said of the discussion after his round. “There was discolored dirt and I saw a couple red ants there and I was thinking, hmm, anthill, may get something or what not. I asked [the rules official] and he was like, ‘Well, it’s got to be, you know, kind of endangering you.’ So there was just discussion there and he didn’t think it was necessary for a drop.”
It’s certainly getting frustrating that we have to see DeChambeau go through this week after week and it definitely has to be frustrating for Tackett, who seems to consistently be on the receiving end of DeChambeau’s arguments. Regardless, Bryson looks to be a contender for a lot of events coming up, so this might be a scene to get used to for the next few months.
Of course Brooks Koepka wasted no time poking fun at this:
View this post on InstagramBrooks slaying a non major — Via @skratch
Cover Image Via PGA TOUR Media
