Jon Rahm is one of the players who can certainly relate to Shane Lowry after the 2019 champion was dealt a two-stroke penalty after his third round at The Open Championship on Saturday.
Shane Lowry‘s hopes of winning The Open Championship for a second time were dealt a real blow with his third round at Royal Portrush. The Irishman looked set to reach the halfway mark at two under par.
However, Lowry was then handed a two-shot penalty after television cameras had picked up a clip of his ball moving ever so slightly after he had taken a practice swing nearby.
It did appear that Lowry had absolutely no idea that the ball had moved. Nevertheless, he went into day three in Northern Ireland at level par for the championship.
Jon Rahm reacts to the penalty Shane Lowry received at The Open Championship
Scottie Scheffler praised Lowry’s reaction to the penalty. But it was not difficult to see why the 38-year-old would have been upset with the decision.
Jon Rahm was involved in a similar situation at The Memorial in 2020 when he was given a two-shot penalty after his final round at Muirfield Village. Thankfully for the Spaniard, it did not deny him victory.
Rahm and Lowry played together on Saturday at Portrush. And the LIV Golf star suggested that he had a lot of sympathy for his Ryder Cup teammate, and backed the idea of the rule being changed.
“Well, I can relate because I’ve been there. They’ve done exactly the same thing to me where they give you the iPad, and look what happened,” he said.
“Yeah, you’re in a no-win situation because if you say I didn’t see it, therefore I don’t think it should be a penalty, even though the rule says it should be visible to the naked eye, you always run the risk of being called something you don’t want to be called. And if you take it on the safe side, you’re taking a two-shot penalty.
“If he starts at 2-under today, you have a good Saturday, you can put yourself in contention. When you get 10 shots back, it’s a little bit harder.
“It’s a tough spot to be in. From what I understand from the whole thing, and I haven’t seen the images, this is just from what I heard, it needs to be visible without a camera. If the rule says visible to the naked eye, we need to uphold that more than anything else.”
“I don’t know,” he added when asked about the possibility of a rule change. “It’s always going to be based on the situation, and when you get in the rough, it’s tricky. But if he didn’t see it, I just don’t know — there’s enough people, I’m assuming if he was in the rough on 12, right or left, there’s enough people around you that if they see it, they’re going to say so. Something needs to be changed for sure, I just don’t know exactly how they could change it.”
Elsewhere, Russell Henley was another player who expressed some disappointment for Lowry’s predicament.
“It’s unfortunate. I had to call a penalty on myself at the Travelers, my last tournament. It’s just a frustrating part of the game. You don’t want your playing competitors to have to have a penalty like that, but it’s just tough, and I feel for him,” he said.
Why the penalty to Shane Lowry at Royal Portrush seemed particularly unfair
Lowry’s complaint appeared to be that the infringement was only spotted after the television cameras had zoomed right in and slowed the footage down.
Clearly, it is not conclusive to the naked eye. It also seems incredibly unfair because there will be a number of players who will not be having a single shot filmed throughout the day.
If Lowry had not been on the coverage at the time, it is likely that nothing would have happened and he would have stayed at two under par.
Not only does it make you feel sympathy for Lowry, but it also leaves you wondering how often similar incidents really do take place and go unnoticed by everyone.
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