Paul McGinley shares his opinion on whether Shane Lowry should have been punished after accidentally moving his ball

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Shane Lowry’s hopes of winning The Open at Royal Portrush for the second time went up in flames on Friday afternoon.

Lowry posted a round of one-under par 70 on Thursday at The Open and then he was moving along nicely in his second round up until the 12th hole.

The Irishman was even-par after 11 holes, with a fairly nice run ahead of him at Royal Portrush, with the clouds clearing and the wind calming down.

However, things turned sour for the 2019 Open champion, when he was informed on the 15th hole that he could face a two-shot penalty after a potential rules infraction on the 12th.

His ball was said to have ever so slightly moved after he addressed it in the rough on the par-five and in the end it was bad news for the Irishman, as he was indeed given a two-stroke penalty.

Scottie Scheffler praised Lowry for his conduct after his penalty was confirmed.

And Lowry himself chose to praise Scheffler’s Open performance in his press conference, rather than dwell too much on his accidental rules violation.

Paul McGinley gives verdict on Shane Lowry’s two-shot penalty at The Open

Former tour player turned golf analyst Paul McGinley is a real straight shooter.

So it was interesting to see how he felt about what his fellow countryman went through at Portrush on Friday.

McGinley took to his X account, and delivered his verdict on Lowry’s situation.

He said: “For me this is very harsh and the rule needs a re think. The spirit of the rule should be what’s important. A penalty should only be applied if the ball can be seen moving with the naked eye.“

Shane Lowry a victim of extremely harsh rule at The Open

The problem for the governing bodies is that this is a very difficult rule to change.

Changing the rule so that punishment only occurs if the ball has been moved intentionally leaves it way too open for interpretation.

And in my opinion, you would definitely get players taking advantage of that rule. Who’s to say whether someone moving their ball is accidental or not. No one actually knows.

That’s why we rely on the integrity of the players to call penalties on themselves.

And that is what brings us nicely back to McGinley’s point. There really is no need for the cameras to get involved like they do, zooming in on all kinds of potential rule infractions.

If it’s not visible to the naked eye, then there should be no penalty, end of story.

Unfortunately that’s not the rule though, and Shane Lowry found that out the hard way on day two of The Open.