LIV Golf superstar comes out swinging over Shane Lowry storm and claims players are stuck in no win situations

Yahoo

3 days ago

Jon Rahm reckons there has to be a rule change after Shane Lowry's two-shot storm at The Open, writes Craig Swan from Portrush.
The Spanish star played alongside his Ryder Cup team-mate less than 24 hours after the controversial call which smacked the 2019 champion.
Lowry was docked a couple of strokes when it was adjudged his ball had moved during a practice-swing routine on the 12th hole of his Friday round. The Irishman was sickened over the ruling which was based on camera footage, but says he was not going to argue as he was not prepared to be smashed with social-media taunts of being a cheat.
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Rahm was aware of the scenario and believes something has to change in the rules having been in the same situation himself at one point. The Liv star said: '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.
'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 two-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. It's always going to be based on the situation, and when you get in the rough, it's tricky.
'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.'
While unimpressed at the Lowry position, Rahm was not one of those with an issue over the slow play.
He said: 'The people that played in my wave, we had a lot of rain come in and out, so umbrellas out, glove out, put the rain gear on, take the rain gear off, give the umbrella to the caddie. It becomes a lot longer that way.
'When you have 150 plus the first two rounds, every single major except the Masters, obviously, is going to be longer rounds. It's just what it is.
'In smaller fields when you have less people, and even in threesomes in small fields, you don't really have that issue. Once they get to the Playoffs or DP World championship or Abu Dhabi, those are not things that become an issue.
'I think there's so many players and there's so many opportunities where the game can get delayed, that's just going to happen. It's the flow of the game. There's very little you can do to make those rounds a lot shorter. That's just the nature of the game.
'It's a bit of an adjustment after playing in LIV because we absolutely fly. The one thing we do, I feel like every round is less than four and a half hours unless the weather conditions are crazy. Doral may be a little bit longer.
'It is an adjustment when you get to play a six-hour round a little bit, but I also know it's going to happen.
'Just distract yourself a little bit and basically lock back in when it's time. There's nothing else you can do.'