Scottie Scheffler refused to comment on the Bryson DeChambeau fiasco at The Open Championship on Saturday.
However, now that the Open Championship has finished, Scheffler clearly felt like it was the right time to share his opinion.
DeChambeau was just one stroke adrift of the lead after he holed out for a birdie on the final hole on Friday.
However, that quickly turned into a three-shot deficit after Bryson DeChambeau was informed of a potential rules violation earlier in his round at The Open on the fifth hole.
DeChambeau was penalized two strokes after his second round at The Open finished and he actually threatened not to turn up and play on Sunday.
Rory McIlroy ripped into DeChambeau after his round on Saturday, suggesting that it was a clear and obvious breach of the rules from the American.
And now world number one Scottie Scheffler has offered his take on the whole situation.
Scottie Scheffler comments on Bryson DeChambeau rules violation at The Open
Scheffler responded when asked whether he is now comfortable talking about the DeChambeau incident on Friday at Birkdale.
“No. I’ve been really focused on the tournament,“ he said.
“I think that opens up a greater discussion that — all I can really say is I think maybe we need to be a little bit more strict in the way that we are policing guys, but it’s a little bit of a balance because you’ve got certain guys like a Bryson who every shot he hits is going to be shown on TV.
“When you have camera angles that are far away, things can look different than they do when you’re right there.
“We’ve done a good job of — I don’t know, I hate saying stuff out here because I don’t want anything to get taken out of context. All I’ll say is Bryson, I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s a lot of things, but he’s definitely not a cheater.
“I’ve never seen him cheat once, whether we were having a putting contest on the putting green or chipping contest, or anytime we played amateur golf, I never saw anything suspicious.
“When you’re watching him there from that camera angle, maybe he was a touch careless around his ball, but I don’t think he did anything intentionally.
“We’ve seen penalties happen with — like you remember Jon Rahm a couple years ago at the Memorial when his ball moved in the rough, and it’s like to the naked eye, can you really tell that?
“I think sometimes it’s just a difficult position in the game of golf. When I was growing up, if this was the line between things that were — like if this was the line, here are the rules and this was the right side of it and this is when you’re doing things against the rule, you always tried to stray really far that way. I feel like at times, sometimes you see players maybe push it a little bit further than they should.“
Bryson DeChambeau is not a cheater, says Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler insisted that he has known DeChambeau for a long time now and that the LIV Golf star is certainly ‘not a cheater’.
“I think we need to kind of get back to the traditions of the game and maybe we do need to police things a little bit more strictly in the game,“ the world number one said.
“But like I said, it’s a tough line to kind of cross. So that’s why it’s hard for me to say anything like this. Bryson is a guy that I’ve known for a really long time. Like I said, he’s not a cheater.“
Bryson DeChambeau will be delighted to hear those comments from Scottie Scheffler after his troubles at The Open.
The LIV Golf star has received much criticism this week but at least he has Scheffler in his corner.
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