SOUTHPORT, England — Rory McIlroy did not mince words for his competitor and long-time rival Bryson DeChambeau on Saturday, calling DeChambeau “performative” and accusing him of holding The Open Championship “hostage” on Friday evening.“Late night for everyone,” McIlroy said after his round. “Yeah, look, I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. 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.”DeChambeau received a two-stroke penalty from the R&A, the organizing body for The Open, for “inadvertently improving the area of his intended swing” on the fifth hole at Royal Birkdale as he escaped knee-high grass in a penalty area. After referees alerted DeChambeau of the infraction of rule 8.1 at the conclusion of his round, DeChambeau asked to be taken back to the site of the shot, where he debated the ruling with officials.Once he had finally accepted the penalty back at the scoring tent, he headed to the driving range and hit balls into the darkness until 10:30 p.m. local time, more than two hours after completing his round.At the time, DeChambeau’s agent, Brett Falkhoff, suggested that the two-time U.S. Open champion was undecided on whether he would continue playing in the tournament. He felt he’d been “unfairly penalized,” in Falkhoff’s words.Several players, including Justin Thomas and Marco Penge, took to social media in frustration with The Open for a delayed release of Saturday tee times, a byproduct of DeChambeau’s antics.McIlroy also said that he thought the penalty given to DeChambeau was completely justified. He described sitting in the player lounge, watching DeChambeau hit the shot in real time, and turning to the players around him, who all had concerned looks on their faces.“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, it was pretty obvious why.“Yeah, I think there’s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing. Again, it’s like, whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don’t think it matters. Hopefully, it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.”Rory McIlroy is at 2-under for The Open Championship after shooting a 69 on Saturday. (Ben Stansall / AFP via Getty Images)McIlroy said it’s difficult for an organization like the R&A to penalize everyone when many players compete without being constantly filmed. But in DeChambeau’s case, the grey area was eliminated by the video footage, which he believed clearly showed an infraction.“It’s obviously impossible to police everyone, and that’s why it is, for the most part, a self-policing game,” he said. “I think when there is obvious evidence like there was last night, then obviously that’s a different story.”McIlroy and DeChambeau have clashed over the years, with disagreements on the fracture between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf as the No. 1 culprit for that divide. But the Northern Irishman and the Texan have also been chief competitors in majors, with DeChambeau besting McIlroy at the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst and McIlroy getting the better of DeChambeau at the 2025 Masters.DeChambeau complained after the latter that McIlroy had not spoken to him during the round, which McIlroy admitted was strategic. “I don’t know what he was expecting,” McIlroy said last year. “We’re trying to win the Masters. I’m not going to try to be his best mate out there.”