'Clear-cut decision' - R&A chief delivers verdict on Bryson DeChambeau's Open penalty

The American went from being one shot off the lead at the halfway stage to three behind Australian Lucas Herbert after his 66 on Friday was changed to a 68.

That followed DeChambeau being hit with a penalty for “inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing”.

Speaking at the Southport venue on Saturday before DeChambeau headed out in the third round, Darbon told BBC Radio 5 Live:

"It was an unfortunate decision but really clear-cut from a rules perspective," Darbon told Iain Carter, the BBC golf correspondent.

It was after midnight on Friday that The R&A discovered through a social media post that the two-time US Open champion hadn’t decided to pull out of the season’s final men’s major after clearly being unhappy about the decision.

"It's fair to say there was some emotion around that and we will keep some of the aspects of that discussion private," said Darbon."There was some emotion but I empathise with that.

“Bryson has played a great round of golf, is in contention at a major championship, he wants to win the golf's original major. We were focused on the ruling and making a fair assessment."

Darbon was also asked if he’d been contacted by US President Donald Trump amidst rumours that DeChambeau had mentioned his name on Friday night.

"No. I have not received a call from President Trump and we will see what happens from here,” he added.

Two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas and Englishman Marco Penge both took to social media on Friday night to ask The R&A to get a move on with tee times for the penultimate circuit, with the tee times being later than normal when they finally came out.

“Yeah, it was a bit of a joke really,” said Penge. I'm staying at home this week, which is an hour away, and not getting a tee time until 11pm is not great.

“What I presumed from social media was that Bryson was deciding whether he was going to play or not. I presume until they were told whether he was going to play, then we wouldn't get the tee time until then.”