Shane Lowry experienced an absolute nightmare on day two of The Open at Royal Portrush.
Midway through Lowry‘s second round at The Open, he was right in the mix.
However, as Scottie Scheffler began to put on the afterburners, the Irishman stagnated, and on the 12th hole, his day became a lot worse.
Lowry was adjudged to have caused his ball to move at address, and was subsequently handed a two-stroke penalty after the completion of his round.
As a result, the 38-year-old went from two-under to even-par for the tournament and he left Royal Portrush feeling really disappointed.
The ruling has divided opinion somewhat in the golfing world. Some believe that the 2019 Open champion deserved the punishment he received.
Whilst others, including the likes of Paul McGinley, claimed Lowry’s two-stroke penalty at The Open was harsh.
Shane Lowry verdict given after two-shot penalty at The Open
Lowry looked understandably dejected when speaking to the media after his second round on Friday evening.
The Irishman was asked whether he thought the two-shot penalty attributed to him was unfair.
Lowry said: “A little bit, but I’m not going to — 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.“
That is fair enough, and at no point would anyone have accused him of cheating. Lowry has called penalties on himself numerous times before after all.
Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner delivered their takes on the situation, when speaking on The Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav.
Hoggard said: “The Lowry situation is interesting because the way the rule is it’s the naked eye rule. Clearly it moved, we saw it on live TV when we were watching it. Anyone who has watched the replay can see, yes, it moved and it’s pretty obvious he caused it to move. That’s the first part of the equation. The second part of the equation when it comes to rules of golf is did the player see it with the naked eye? That means if you don’t slow it down to slow mo, can you see it moved?
“I felt like he could have, he contended that he could not see it move and I tend to believe him in that situation because in the heat of the moment it did not. I think Scottie probably said it best, it’s an unfortunate situation. This is one of those rules of golf where clearly there was no intent.
“I will give Shane Lowry credit also because he was asked that you went from being in contention and after the two stroke penalty you just made the cut, and he was very quick to say that the way Scottie is playing, am I really in contention at two under par? So he did give credit.
“It was a bit surreal. Two groups came through while they were in there getting that ruling, so that was a bit surreal but I think Shane did the right thing.“
Shane Lowry made ‘interesting’ comment after two-shot penalty at The Open
Lavner weighed into the debate after Hoggard’s comments.
He said, “It was an interesting scenario because he clearly had to have made the ball move but Shane Lowry said that when he was getting ready for his shot obviously he is looking down at the golf ball he did not see it move.
“And when he went into the scoring hut after he was approached on the 15th green to tell him there is a potential infraction and a potential two shot penalty.
“He played the last couple of holes with that possibility in mind. When he got to the scorer’s hut he thought that the R&A officials had already made up their minds and they were essentially just waiting for him to confirm it.
“Shane Lowry could have said I didn’t do it and you don’t have proof and he would have been able to maintain his score without a two stroke penalty.
“But Shane said that I did not want social media to bash me if all of a sudden all they are showing is the slow mo video of the ball moving, I did not want to be labelled a cheat. I found that very interesting and honourable.“
Hopefully karma will work in Lowry’s favour on day three of The Open.
If the golfing Gods are smiling on the Irishman on Saturday, he may well go out and post a score in the mid to low 60s.
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