Rónán MacNamara in Royal Portrush
Shane Lowry admitted that he was bitterly disappointed to be penalised two shots after his second round of the 153rd Open Championship for moving his golf ball during a practice swing on the 12th hole at Royal Portrush.
There seemed to be plenty of room between club head and ball when Lowry took a practice whiff of the fescue left of the fairway but a slow-mo television replay shows that he made contact with a hard strand of grass which was growing from underneath the ball, causing it to move a dimple, if even. Something not visible to the naked eye.
Lowry was already clinging on to the fringes of contention at eight shots behind a rampant Scottie Scheffler, but now with a ten shot deficit, his chances of winning a second Claret Jug look to be over for another year. He didn’t say as much, but, the look of devastation as he left the scoring hut told the story.
Lowry, who was notified of a potential two shot penalty on the 15th, will now begin round two on level-par after signing for a 72 rather than a 70. But when the Offaly man addressed the media he produced a classy response, even cracking a joke that he would miss the Lions game on Saturday morning.
“I didn’t know anything happened until walking up the 15th fairway and then a rules official came over and told me that you know there’s a possibility the ball moved on the 12th on my second shot and I asked him how many shot penalty is that if it did and he said 2 so obviously then I feel like I’m on the cut mark then, which is not very nice and I felt like I played well on the way in,” said Lowry whose par five on 12 became a double bogey seven.
“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, you know, 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 him I definitely was looking down towards the ball as I was taking that practice swing and I didn’t see it move. 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, you know, I get on with it. It’s obviously very disappointing.
‘I felt like I played really, really well today, And yes, that’s, that’s hard to take. It’s well look, I’ll just have to dust myself off and get out there tomorrow and yeah, give it a go.”
Lowry spent almost half an hour with rules officials after his round and when he emerged, it was clear that the outcome was not in his favour.
The 2019 Open champion felt powerless to argue his case and insists he would have called a foul on himself had he seen his ball move on the 12th. There is a degree of unfairness to this ruling, had Lowry been away from the featured groups this week a TV camera might not have recorded his ball moving, because there is a possibility that some players playing off broadway this week would have gotten away with the same thing given how minimal the movement of the ball was.
“It was like far from the ball. Apparently a blade of grass I hit and the ball moved. A dimple or something,” Lowry explained.
“I think they had it in their heads the ball moved, I caused it to move, it’s a two-shot penalty. They only had one camera angle which was zoomed in at the ball. They had none of me actually full length, which we were looking for and needed.
“A little bit (unfair), but 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.”
It’s a tough pill for Lowry to swallow and being told about a potential penalty three holes after the fact put him in a precarious position at one shot inside the cut mark.
“I don’t know to be honest. 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.”
To his credit, Lowry birdied the fifteenth and passed up another good chance on the 17th. It was a frustrating day already having ranked 2nd in greens in regulation for the championship so far but he did take some pride in how he handled his emotions down the closing stretch to at least ensure he is around for the weekend.
“I played great on the way in, hit some nice shots. Left it on the lip on 16 and 18, missed a good chance on 17, so it could have been different.
“But yeah, look, it’s a disappointing thing to happen to me, but that’s golf. Onwards and upwards and give it a run this weekend.”
Meanwhile at the top of the leaderboard, Scheffler leads by the minimum on ten-under ahead of Matthew Fitzpatrick after a superb round of 64.
Fitzpatrick had briefly led after a 66 while Brian Harman and Haotong Li share third place on eight-under-par.
Rory McIlroy is seven shots off the pace on three-under after a round of 69.
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