Golfer Bryson DeChambeau reportedly threatened to use his friendship with President Donald Trump to help dispute a penalty at the British Open over the weekend.
DeChambeau — a Trump supporter and chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition — asked officials at the major tournament across the pond to bring the U.S. president into the tense, 30-minute conversation in hopes of overturning a two-stroke penalty that he was assessed at the fifth hole.
Video shows DeChambeau arguing with rules officials after he was slapped with a penalty for “inadvertently improving his lie” on the hole, knocking him out of second place at the time and putting him three shots behind the leader.
He ultimately finished -4 par and tied for 14th place. New Zealand’s Ryan Fox took the winner’s trophy Sunday.
Geoff Shackelford was the first to report on DeChambeau’s Trump threat in a post to his Substack page, The Quadrilateral.
The Times of London and The Telegraph also confirmed the golfer called for the president to intervene.
JS has reached out to the White House and the golfer’s representatives for comment.
The penalty row saw DeChambeau getting an unusual opportunity to later return to the fifth hole to plead his case without signing his scorecard upon completing the round, creating delays and headaches for fellow golfers in the process.
DeChambeau’s request for Trump to get involved was denied, per Shackelford’s newsletter.
Mark Darbon — chief executive of the governing body of golf, Royal and Ancient — told BBC Radio 5 on Saturday that he had not received a call from Trump regarding the penalty.
The golfer’s reported threat arrives just weeks after Trump called up FIFA President Gianni Infantino on behalf of U.S. men’s soccer star Folarin Balogun, who was assessed a one-game suspension in the wake of a controversial red card during a match in the round of 32.
That decision was subsequently reversed ahead of the American squad’s match against Belgium in the round of 16.