Golf

Bryson DeChambeau fighting fire ants in latest rules feud

Twenty-plus pounds of muscle couldn’t help Bryson DeChambeau win his battle with ants.

During the first round of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Thursday, DeChambeau complained to rules officials that red fire ants were in his stance on the 7th hole and that he deserved a drop.

“It looks like an ant hole, or ant area,” DeChambeau said with his ball lying in a precarious spot in pine straw off the rough.

The PGA Tour referee, Ken Tackett, disagreed.

“I don’t see any fire ants in the sense that it would be a dangerous situation.” Tackett said, according to CBS.

The discussion then went into how big an animal hole has to be to count as an obstruction.

“It doesn’t interfere with your stance regardless, anyway. It’s not an animal hole,” Tackett said, according to GolfWeek.

DeChambeau, 26, left his second shot well short of the green on his way to a double bogey. It was part of an otherwise impressive opening round 3-under that left him tied for ninth at the end of the first round.

“I’m always going to respect the officials and go, OK, no issue, that’s fine,” DeChambeau said after the round. “It didn’t help that I had a really, really bad lie, too, I had two twigs lodged in between my ball. Is what it is.”

DeChambeau has been one of, if not the most impressive, player on tour since golf returned from their coronavirus postponement. However, the divisive DeChambeau has also confronted a CBS cameraman and got into a separate argument with rules officials at The Memorial two weeks ago when a clear out of bounds ruling led tp him making a 10 on one hole and missing the cut.