DeChambeau hit with two-stroke penalty for improving lie at Open Championship

At Royal Birkdale, where the rules of golf are as old as the game itself, Bryson DeChambeau found himself caught between instinct and regulation — a moment of preparation in hip-high fescue becoming the hinge upon which his entire tournament turned. A two-stroke penalty, assessed after officials reviewed his conduct on the fifth hole, collapsed his standing from contention to the margins and left him weighing whether to continue at all. It is a story as old as competition itself: the line between gamesmanship and violation, and the cost of crossing it, however unintentionally.