{"id":40493,"date":"2026-07-21T14:46:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/40493\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:46:40","slug":"rory-mcilroys-silent-treatment-and-bryson-dechambeaus-savage-response-as-feud-reignites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/40493\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy’s silent treatment and Bryson DeChambeau’s savage response as feud reignites"},"content":{"rendered":"

The animosity between Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau has come to the fore once again at The Open Championship<\/p>\n

09:18, 19 Jul 2026Updated 09:19, 19 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

\"Bryson<\/p>\n

There is no love lost between Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy’s attack on Bryson DeChambeau’s<\/a> conduct at The Open has reignited a feud that has never been far from the surface. The Masters champion let rip at DeChambeau<\/a> after the American was docked two shots for a rules violation during his second round at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n

Incensed by the punishment,<\/a> DeChambeau requested to be driven out to the scene of the incident on the fifth hole, where he spent a lengthy period remonstrating with officials before returning to the scoring compound for further discussions.<\/p>\n

The saga delayed the publication of the third-round tee times until around 11pm and prompted criticism from a number of players, including McIlroy,<\/a> who accused DeChambeau of holding the tournament “hostage” and called his antics “performative.” He also dropped in that he was “not particularly fond” of the LIV Golf<\/a> star.<\/p>\n

It’s well known that the pair have never been on each other’s Christmas<\/a> card lists. At the 2024 US Open, a late collapse from McIlroy allowed DeChambeau to sweep in and take the title. The crestfallen Northern Irishman left the course before congratulating his rival, later doing so on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Later that year, the pair were both involved in the Showdown event in Las Vegas, where McIlroy made it clear that he wanted to play against DeChambeau, saying: “I’d like to go up against Bryson and try to get him back for what he did to me at the US Open.”<\/p>\n

DeChambeau’s response – “Well, to be fair, you kinda did it to yourself” – didn’t go down well with McIlroy, who is thought to have considered it cruel. Then, at last year’s Masters, McIlroy gave DeChambeau the silent treatment as he focused on finally getting his hands on the Green Jacket.<\/p>\n

DeChambeau, whose challenge faded down the final stretch, was asked about his final-round playing partner. He said: “No idea, he didn’t talk to me once all day.”<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

DeChambeau and McIlroy after last year’s Masters(Image: Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

McIlroy hit back, saying:<\/a> “I don’t know what he was expecting. We’re trying to win the Masters. I’m not going to try to be his best mate out there.”<\/p>\n

This latest spat stemmed from DeChambeau’s penalty for improving the area of his backswing by standing on a large tuft of high grass. The broad verdict is that R&A officials were correct in hitting him with a two-stroke penalty, which dropped him from one to three shots off the lead heading into the weekend.<\/p>\n

McIlroy was among those who felt the penalty was just. He said: “I was watching it live. I was up in the players’ lounge watching it with a few other players and as soon as he made the step into the ball we all sort of looked at each other, and we were like, ‘That didn\u2019t seem right.’<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

McIlroy ripped into DeChambeau over his Open antics(Image: R&A via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“Then when I heard that he was called in by the rules officials it was pretty obvious for why. I think there\u2019s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing.<\/p>\n

“Whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don’t think it matters. Hopefully, it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.”<\/p>\n

Going into the final round, DeChambeau is in a tie for sixth place on under six under, four shots off leader Sam Burns. McIlroy, eight shots off the lead on two under, looks to be out of contention.<\/p>\n

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The R&A Official Shop has unveiled a 154th Open collection ahead of the tournament on 16-19 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The animosity between Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau has come to the fore once again at The Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[87,399,1295,1565],"class_list":["post-40493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-bryson-dechambeau","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-the-open-championship","tag-us-open-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493","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=40493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}