‘It is what it is’

MEMPHIS, Ten. – For the second consecutive tournament, Bryson DeChambeau found himself in the middle of a strange request from the Rules of Golf and, for the second consecutive tournament, the result did not favor him.

DeChambeau was looking to close a solid opening Thursday at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational when his trip to the seventh hole par-4 sailed to the left of the fairway and settled into a terrible lie next to a tree. After a quick glance at his lie, DeChambeau’s busy mind began to work.

“So, there was discolored dirt and I saw a couple of red ants there and I was thinking, hmm, anthill, it might have something or not [relief]”DeChambeau said, who was 4 years old at the time.” I asked [PGA Tour rules official Ken Tackett] and he was like, well, he must be able to put you in danger. And I was, just an anthill. “

A long conversation followed and Tackett eventually denied DeChambeau’s relief from the anthill. After punching just below the green, DeChambeau failed to reach the shooting surface with his next shot on the road for a double bogey-6.

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“I will always respect the officials and go, OK, no problem, okay,” he said. “It didn’t help me to say that I also had a really, really bad lie, I had two twigs lodged between my ball. It is what it is. “

DeChambeau was in a similar situation two weeks ago during the second round of the Memorial after making a mess on the 15th^th hole. After making two shots out of bounds, he asked if he could play one of his balls which was just out of bounds. When an officer determined that he was not allowed to play an out of bounds ball, he asked for a second opinion (Tackett) which also denied his request. DeChambeau made a 10 on the hole.