'Bryson Is Smoke and  Mirrors': Dave Portnoy Sides With Rory McIlroy in  DeChambeau Feud

Dave Portnoy has firmly sided with Rory McIlroy in his escalating feud with Bryson DeChambeau, calling the LIV Golf star ‘smoke and mirrors’ when it comes to his public image.

Speaking on Wake Up Barstool, the Barstool Sports founder said that he completely agrees with McIlroy’s blunt criticism of DeChambeau following a massive rules controversy at the 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

“I agree with everything that Rory is saying,” Portnoy said, per a video shared by Wake Up Barstool on X.

“I like bad blood in golf. Like Bryson vs. Rory. If you don’t like Rory that’s fine, but I don’t think Rory is performative at all. I think Bryson is smoke and mirrors…. He’s trying to intentionally craft an image.”

The drama started in the second round at Royal Birkdale. DeChambeau was penalized two shots after officials ruled he had violated Rule 8.1 by “inadvertently improving the area of his intended back swing” on the fifth hole.

DeChambeau argued the ruling for well over an hour, and even threatened not to play the weekend.

McIlroy did not hold back when asked about it. He said he was watching live from the players’ lounge and thought the breach looked obvious right away. He called the reaction “performative,” said he was “not particularly fond” of DeChambeau, and felt the two-shot penalty was “justified for sure.”

Portnoy, who has a reputation as a McIlroy critic, liked that bluntness.

“I think Rory can be like kind of a j*** and a baby, and I’ve sat next to him one time at a fight, so he was friendly to me, so I don’t want to be too critical. Rory can be a j***, but I don’t think he’s worried at all about his public image or what people think. Bryson 100% is. Like, Bryson is a gigantic act, I think, you know,” he added in the same video.

“Everything about him is designed to, with thought of how people perceive him, whether he’s liked, whether he’s cool, whether he’s weird, whether his YouTube videos.”

Portnoy Has Not Always Been Soft on McIlroy

For all his praise of McIlroy’s authenticity recently, Portnoy has not always been in the Northern Irishman’s corner.

Back in April, after McIlroy won his second straight Masters title, Portnoy was singing a very different tune.

McIlroy finished that tournament at 12-under par, beating Scottie Scheffler by a single stroke. The winning moment was messy. McIlroy’s tee shot on the 72nd hole sailed so far left that it nearly landed on the 10th fairway. From there, he scrambled to make bogey and still win.

Portnoy took to X with a complaint: “If I was golf commish I wouldn’t let people play other fairways to bail out a (crappy) shot.”

He argued that players should not be allowed to play recovery shots off another hole’s fairway to bail themselves out of trouble. He essentially called for a rules change at Augusta National.

But this time, it’s completely different.