Shane Lowry hit by controversial two-shot penalty at The Open

Shane Lowry with caddie Darren Reynolds after finishing his second round at The Open. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Shane Lowry incurred a controversial two-shot penalty - after completing his second round of 70 - at The Open on Friday.

Slo-mo footage showed the 2019 winner’s ball move in rough on the 12th hole after he had taken a practice swing. There was no contact with the club, but a blade of grass appeared to make it move slightly.

It was only on the 15th that an R&A rules official approached and explained there was an issue. Lowry was one-under at the time with the cut standing at one-over. The Offaly man then reviewed footage with officials after his round.

“Well, I didn't know anything happened until walking up the 15th fairway and then the rules official came over and told me that there was a possibility the ball moved on the 12th for my second shot.

“So I said… I've asked him, how many shot penalty is that if it did, and he said two. Obviously then I feel like I'm on the cut mark, which is not very nice. I feel like I played well on the way in and then obviously waited to see.

“I mean, yeah, I was in there with the rules official and wasn't arguing my case, but I'm disappointed that they don't have more camera angles on it. The one zoomed in slow motion.

“They're trying to tell me if it doesn't move from the naked eye, if you don't see it moving, it didn't move. I told them I definitely was looking down towards the ball as I was taking that practice swing, and I didn't see it move.

“But I had to take the penalty because… I'm still not sure, to be honest, whether it was or not, but I had to take the penalty because I can't have my name talked about or tossed around like that, and I just get on with it.” 

Lowry seems like he doesn't agree that the ball moved. Said he wishes there were more cameras on it but accepted the penalty because he didn't want to be called a cheat.

Scottie added that Shane was "put in a tough situation, but handled it very well."

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Lowry felt that officials had made a decision before he sat down with them and admitted that it felt unfair, but he had ultimately little option but to accept the penalty.

“If the ball moved and I caused it to move and it moved, it's a two-shot penalty. The last thing I want to do is sit there and argue and not take the penalty and then get slaughtered all over social media tonight for being a cheat.” 

There have been times past when Lowry has called shots on himself and he said that he would have called this one if he had seen it moving, but that that hadn’t been the case this time. It left him signing for a 72.

“Like I always say, I'm going to have to sit back and kind of think about this now before I go to bed tonight. But yeah, I wasn't sure because obviously you want to know if you're on the cut mark.

"But I went from feeling like if I can make two or three birdies on the way in, which I felt like 15 and 17 were good chances, that I can push up that leaderboard.

“And then all of a sudden I'm playing 16, 17, 18 feeling like I'm on the cut mark, even though I was very happy to birdie 15. That was a big birdie for me after what happened. But yeah, I'm just going to have to take it.

"It's a bad break. And move on.”

Scottie Scheffler, one of his two playing partners on Friday, was asked for his take on the incident.

“Ultimately in golf it's up to the player, and I felt like Shane was put in a pretty tough situation there when they were zooming in on his golf ball. In the rough it's hard to tell.

“From what I looked at very briefly on the video, it looked like it was very difficult to see if the ball was moving, sorry. If the ball moved. The camera was kind of zooming in as stuff was happening.

“One of the great things about the game of golf is that you call your penalties on yourself. This situation, I think it was just… It was a very tough spot for Shane to be put in. He handled it really well. It's obviously very frustrating.

“It's frustrating for me as a competitor of his and a player to watch him after kind of deal with that because the last thing you want to be known in the game of golf is somebody who cheats.

“I'm not going to state a strong opinion here in the media on whether or not I thought he deserved the penalty, but all I'm going to say is it was a very tough situation for him to be put in, and I thought he handled it really well.”