Rory McIlroy Calls Bryson DeChambeau 'Performative' for Reaction to British Open Penalty in Video

Bryson DeChambeau landed a two-stroke penalty after a heated exchange with British Open officials on Friday, and Rory McIlroy wasn't a fan of his antics.

On Saturday, McIlroy called DeChambeau "performative" for the way he reacted to the disciplinary measure.

"Yeah, look, I won't pretend to be up here and defend Bryson," McIlroy told reporters. "I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention. To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn't feel like it was a great look."

On the fifth hole of the second round of The Open on Friday, DeChambeau hit into the tall native grass at Royal Birkdale. While preparing for his second shot, he appeared to take a few steps that pushed the grass behind his ball down, thus leading to a conversation about whether he had improved his lie.

"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't seem right," McIlroy said. "Then when I heard that he was called in by the rules officials, I think we all — it was pretty obvious for why."

Once he finished his round, the R&A ruled that he had improved his lie, penalizing him two strokes. He still finished the day in fifth place, though without the penalty he would've entered the third round in second.

While McIlroy called out DeChambeau for his antics, not all of the players were on the same page. Max Homa said he didn't agree with the ruling and defended DeChambeau's character.

"All I know is I've known Bryson for a very long time, and he's an interesting human at times, but I know he would never cheat the game of golf," Homa told reporters. "I don't really love how it happened. It's not that The R&A said that he did it intentionally, but that rule as a professional golfer feels like it's written inherently to protect against people trying to improve their lie.

"I just hope that doesn't create a narrative because I don't believe that of him."

DeChambeau's ruling might have his peers split for the remainder of the weekend, but he'll look to put it behind him and finish out the tournament strong.