Now six-time major champion McIlroy, 37, has given his take in a brutal scolding of the controversial DeChambeau.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters after his third round, McIlroy, who was described by amateur golfer Cameron Jourdan as \u201cgoing scorched earth\u201d on DeChambeau, said: \u201cI think there\u2019s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, it\u2019s like, whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don\u2019t think it matters. Hopefully it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I\u2019m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it\u2019s performative. I think a lot of it\u2019s for attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn\u2019t feel like it was a great look.\u201d<\/p>\n
By contrast, former Open champion Xander Schauffele claimed DeChambeau could have been given \u201cthe benefit of the doubt\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cHe said he didn\u2019t do it intentionally and it\u2019s unfortunate that he got penalised because he was playing incredibly well and obviously he\u2019s still playing incredibly well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he\u2019s obviously going to have something to prove these next two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Following the second round chaos, DeChambeau shot one under par on Saturday and will go into Sunday\u2019s finale tied for sixth, four shots adrift of leader Sam Burns.<\/p>\n
Australian Lucas Herbert tied the course record with a round of 62 to take the lead on Friday, but dropped to fourth on Saturday with a one over round of 71.<\/p>\n
New Zealander Ryan Fox leapfrogged Herbert with his own round of 62 to leave him second, just two shots behind Burns.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Masters champion McIlroy is not expected to contest for a seventh major as he heads into Sunday eight shots adrift of the lead.<\/p>\n
The Northern Irishman won the tournament in 2014 and has finished in the top 10 on 11 occasions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has destroyed Bryson DeChambeau following his two-shot penalty at The Open, labelling him \u201cperformative\u201d and accusing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15627,15605,15607,15615,15657,15647,15650,15535,15602,15613,15644,15600,15608,15655,15632,15646,15652,15604,15612,15653,15654,15641,15660,15518,87,15635,15597,15598,15625,15651,15626,15661,15599,15656,15631,11434,2610,44,15622,15645,15649,15628,15623,15638,15659,15616,15662,15636,15619,15609,15603,15637,2022,15596,2269,777,15634,399,519,2527,15610,15639,1891,15640,15621,15629,15620,15606,15601,15648,15643,15394,15595,15611,6197,15630,15379,15633,15618,4397,15642,15617,15624,15658,8106,15614],"class_list":["post-39173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-s-controversial-open-penalty","tag-s-finale","tag-s-office","tag-11-occasions","tag-15657","tag-15647","tag-15650","tag-15535","tag-71-new-zealander-ryan-fox","tag-840pm","tag-a-brutal-scolding","tag-a-delay","tag-a-great-look","tag-a-lot","tag-a-one","tag-a-round","tag-a-seventh-major","tag-a-wayward-tee-shot-he","tag-all-players","tag-amateur-golfer-cameron-jourdan","tag-american-dechambeau","tag-an-astonishing-rant","tag-attention","tag-bryson","tag-bryson-dechambeau","tag-burns-meanwhile","tag-childish-and-immature","tag-commentator-brandel-chamblee","tag-contrast","tag-dechambeau","tag-eight-shots","tag-evening","tag-every-round","tag-former-open-champion-xander-schauffele","tag-four-shots","tag-fox-sports","tag-friday","tag-golf","tag-herbert","tag-his-backswing","tag-his-lie","tag-his-own-round","tag-his-rival-performative","tag-his-take","tag-his-third-round","tag-his-two-shot-penalty","tag-just-1-now-six-time-major-champion-mcilroy","tag-just-two-shots","tag-kayo","tag-kayo-sports-new","tag-leader-sam-burns-australian-lucas-herbert","tag-masters-champion-mcilroy","tag-mcilroy","tag-open-drama","tag-par","tag-players","tag-reporters","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-royal-birkdale","tag-saturday","tag-scorched-earth","tag-sixth","tag-sunday","tag-tall-grass","tag-tee-times-after","tag-the-benefit","tag-the-controversial","tag-the-course-record","tag-the-doubt","tag-the-golf-superstar","tag-the-golf-world","tag-the-lead","tag-the-lead-the-northern-irishman","tag-the-line","tag-the-open","tag-the-open-championship-live-exclusive","tag-the-second-round","tag-the-second-round-chaos","tag-the-top-10","tag-the-tournament","tag-the-tournament-director","tag-the-tournament-hostage","tag-the-two-shot-penalty","tag-these-next-two-days","tag-volunteers","tag-your-first-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}