NBC’s Lead Golf Analyst Completely Whiffed on His Take About Bryson DeChambeau’s Controversial Penalty

Bryson DeChambeau was issued a two-shot penalty after his second round on Friday. | Richard Heathcote/Getty Image

Bryson DeChambeau and the stunning two-shot penalty he received after his second round on Friday has become the story of the of the 2026 British Open.

While he wasn’t happy about the ruling and argued his case with officials while standing in the weeds on the fifth hole and then threatened to not show up for Saturday’s third round, the whole ordeal led to lots of opinions from just about everyone who watched, and then rewatched, how it all went down.

On Saturday, NBC Sports brought out its top broadcasting team for the final two rounds and before DeChambeau teed off, lead analyst Kevin Kisner was given the chance to give his take on the controversy. Kisner has played on the PGA Tour for a long time, was a Vice Captain of last year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team and has never been afraid to tell everyone exactly what he thinks.

Winners and Losers From Second Round of British Open: The TV Broadcast Had One Major Failure

He had the opportunity on Saturday do to just that about DeChambeau but then he completely whiffed. Kisner said little about what DeChambeau did in the long rough to get the penalty and instead went on about how a walking official should have played a bigger role in the situation.

Dan Hicks started the discussion by saying to Kisner: “Kiz, you had a lot of time to digest this, what is your take on the Bryson DeChambeau episode on the fifth hole yesterday?”

Kisner opened his comments by making a joke about how he was asleep while it all played out Friday night.

“I went to bed a little early, I guess, and missed some of the action last night,” Kisner said, which seemed to delight Hicks. “Woke up to a myriad of text messages.”

That’s just a bonkers thing for a lead analyst to say. While Kisner wasn’t on the call on Friday, it’s wild that he would say that he was asleep by the end of the round. DeChambeau was playing in a group with Scottie Scheffler on Friday and they are two of the biggest names in the sport. They were both playing well down the stretch and Kisner... went to bed and missed the end of their rounds? Not great.

Kisner then briefly addressed DeChambeau’s movements in the long rough before hitting the shot:

“Obviously from the Bryson standpoint, nobody likes to see him walking in there like he’s a WWE wrestler going in to his first match, high-stepping through there on the high grass. No other player is doing that.”

🚨🌾🤼 #WATCH: Kevin Kisner on the Bryson penalty: “Nobody likes to see him walking in there like he’s a WWE wrestler going into his first match high stepping through the high grass…”

“Every group has a walking official why is he not apart of this?” pic.twitter.com/ELUffLRTDU

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) July 18, 2026

Kisner should have dove in deeper there about what DeChambeau did to get penalized. He had a chance to give the viewers an inside look at DeChambeau’s process in that moment and he should have weighed in on if he believed the penalty was the right call or not and then explained why he felt the way he did.

But Kisner did not do that. Instead, he then went in on how he thought the walking official with DeChambeau’s group should have been more involved in the situation.

“I wish the walking official was over there during this,” Kisner said. “Every group has a walking official. Why is he not a part of this? It was obviously an awkward situation. We have officials in every group, he should be over there so we’re not having to do all of this post round. If the walking official is there he could explain to everyone and had eyes on it so we didn’t have to use videocameras. I think that was a big miss.”

The big miss wasn’t what the walking official did or didn’t do. It was what DeChambeau did and he’s the only person that should be receiving blame for how this whole thing played out. He could have taken a minute to call the official in to get his eyes on the situation and make sure everything he was doing was aboveboard. Golfers know the rules and should take it upon themselves to make sure they are doing everything the right way. If they have any concerns about if they’re following the rules, then they should ask for some help from the official.

Kisner addressed that by saying:

“Every time you’re back home and you call an official in, I know [DeChambeau] didn’t probably call an official in, but lots of guys were over there. [The walking official] could have easily walked over there, they remind you ‘hey you’re in a penalty area, hey don’t knock any limbs off the trees,’ things like that. It’s very often that happens.”

And with that Hicks moved on to talk about a pair of 62s that were shot on Friday by Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns.

The DeChambeau discussion deserved a lot more time than what it was given by NBC’s lead announcers. Kisner had a chance to really go in on DeChambeau and the controversy but instead he spent most of his time talking about a walking official?

Yeah, that was weak.

---