A US Open oops for Lowry, who gets a penalty after picking up his ball but forgetting to mark
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Shane Lowry was penalized a stroke Friday at the U.S. Open after he accidentally picked up his ball on the 14th green without marking it.
If nothing else, it gave Lowry something to laugh about during an otherwise miserable round. The penalty shot gave him a double bogey on the hole and brought his score for the tournament to 16-over par with four holes left.
The cut line was hovering at 6 over. Lowry, who played in the final group the last time the U.S. Open was at Oakmont in 2016, was set to miss the cut in his second straight major after tying for 42nd at the Masters.
The Rules of Golf say if a player picks up a ball on the green without marking it, he can replace it at the original spot with a penalty of one stroke. After realizing what he'd done, he and his playing partners, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose, laughed, then Lowry asked a rules official what to do?
'Just put it back where it was?' he said.
He did, then barely missed a 55-footer that would have been for bogey, including the penalty.
___
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Lynch: Rory McIlroy vs. the media is one battle in a bigger war, and no one is winning
Lynch: Rory McIlroy vs. the media is one battle in a bigger war, and no one is winning OAKMONT, Pa. — For people whose concerns extend beyond existential issues — the quality of food in media centers, the proximity of restrooms to media centers, and WiFi functionality in media centers — the simmering war between Rory McIlroy and golf's press corps must seem a peculiar and petty squabble. The Masters champion stiff-armed reporters after all four rounds at last month's PGA Championship and for the first two rounds of this U.S. Open. The reasons at Quail Hollow were varied —Thursday he was pissed after a poor finish to his round; Friday he wanted to see his daughter before she went to bed; at the weekend he was irked by coverage of his driver having been deemed nonconforming during routine testing, a fact that is supposed to be confidential. McIlroy's was the only name reported, despite Scottie Scheffler's driver also having been among those failed. A mundane occurrence that happens every week was treated as breaking news and duly weaponized by bad faith bullshitters determined to present it all as extraordinary and suspicious. Whether McIlroy cares to distinguish between the bullshitters and those he sees regularly on Tour is a question no media member seems eager to pose, perhaps knowing there is at least some overlap in that pen diagram. But it's not as though McIlroy has been in the witness protection program. He had pre-tournament press conferences at last week's RBC Canadian Open and earlier this week at Oakmont, and will do so again at the Travelers Championship next week. He's doing what he feels is appropriate, but not what the media thinks is appropriate. That chasm is unlikely to be bridged anytime soon. The media has few advocates these days, a combination of the cancerous malevolents eager to undermine any source of information that contradicts their conspiracy theories, and the verifiably lousy performance and dumbing-down of so much in the industry. But golf media isn't oversubscribed with wannabe Woodwards and Bernsteins, and players have no justification for acting like they're dealing with pit bulls when the reality is closer to golden retrievers eager to please their masters. This standoff is practical in one sense (reporters want answers to inform their work) and philosophical in another (weighing privileges or rights on one side, obligations versus responsibilities on the other). There are media members who believe they have a right to hear from golfers post-round and some who consider it a privilege earned by their conduct or coverage. It's neither. It's a grace and favor routine established over generations, and certainly not a privilege since those can be withdrawn at will or extended only to the sycophantic. It's really an opportunity to be grasped when available and worked around when it isn't. McIlroy is entitled to dismiss requests for his time, and the generous accessibility he has granted over the years makes for predictable griping when the door is inexplicably slammed shut. Whether he should limit media is a separate argument, and a reckoning looms for the PGA Tour between players' mandated obligations and their optional responsibilities. McIlroy took questions after his third round Saturday and was asked if he feels he's earned the right to step back from the microphone after several years as a de facto spokesman for the Tour in the LIV war. His answer was much broader than the question: 'I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do, yeah.' Actually, he's always had that right. Tour players aren't required to accommodate media requests and plenty have rejected reporters more frequently and disdainfully than he, as anyone who covered Vijay Singh can testify. When Collin Morikawa was criticized for skipping press after a tough loss at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March — 'I don't owe anyone anything' — McIlroy defended him, noting that press availability isn't mandated by Ponte Vedra. Today he was asked if he's daring the Tour to make it compulsory, which is about as likely as a member of the press hoisting the trophy at Oakmont on Sunday night. 'I'm not daring them to do anything,' he said. 'I hope they don't change it because it would, you know -- this is, it's a nice luxury to have. But I'm just pointing out the fact that we have the ability to do it.' So there is no obligation for McIlroy to speak, but is there a responsibility? And to whom? Because this isn't really a row about whether players owe media anything — they don't — but whether they owe something to the consumers of their product. The Tour and its investors believe that players became co-owners of the business after they were granted equity last year. Sponsors pay handsomely because fans are willing to invest time and attention, and that audience is entitled to the final chapter of the weekly serial, and not to be left hanging because someone is pissed at choking away a lead or rushing to catch a flight. The media is the conduit to those consumers, whether players connect the dots or not. Sure, they can post to their own social channels, but the vast majority of fans don't engage with those platforms because they know most of it is sanitized spon-con thanking whatever corporate 'family' has bunged them a few bucks. Professional golfers are not paid for their wit or charm, and only partially for their performance. The compensation of athletes correlates with their value to the league and impact on the business. Marketing is a key component of that. In January, Justin Thomas sent a memo to his fellow players encouraging greater media co-operation to better sell their shared product. For all but the last few weeks of his lengthy career, McIlroy has been a leader in that effort, admirably so since requests for his time far outnumber those for his peers. So this is not simply a Rory McIlroy issue. But at some juncture, those who administer men's professional golf need to decide whether they're in the 'we' business or the 'me' business, because right now the expectations of their consumers and the compliance of their players are not at all aligned.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Rookie Cam Smith hits walkoff single to give Astros a thrilling 3-2 win over Twins
HOUSTON (AP) — Rookie Cam Smith hit a tiebreaking RBI single off closer Jhoan Duran with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Houston Astros a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday. Duran (4-2) walked Christian Walker with one out in the ninth and he moved to third on a two-out single by Jake Meyers. Smith then singled on a grounder to center to score Meyers for his first career walkoff hit and Houston's fourth straight victory. Closer Josh Hader (3-0) struck out two in a scoreless ninth for the win. Both teams got strong performances from their starters. Houston's Hunter Brown allowed three hits and two runs with a career-high 12 strikeouts in seven innings. Minnesota's Joe Ryan yielded two hits and two runs while fanning seven in seven innings. Yainer Diaz hit a two-run homer for Houston in the third and Brooks Lee tied it with his shot in the fifth that extended his career-long hitting streak to 14 games. Bryan Abreu struck out three in a scoreless eighth for the Astros. Brown plunked Byron Buxton on the left elbow to start the sixth before walking Trevor Larnach. But he retired the next three batters, with two strikeouts to escape the jam. Buxton remained in the game for the bottom of the inning but was replaced in center field by Harrison Bader in the bottom of the seventh. The team said he had left because of a bruised left elbow. Smith's single to win it. Key stat Brown has a 1.88 ERA, which ranks second in the American League. Up next ___
Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
João Klauss has 1st career MLS hat trick for St. Louis in 3-3 tie with Galaxy
Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joao Klauss scored three goals — the 28-year-old's first MLS hat trick — the last of which came in the fifth minute of stoppage time for St. Louis City on Saturday in a 3-3 tie with the LA Galaxy. Goalkeeper Roman Burki played a free kick from beyond midfield to the edge of the box where Timo Baumgartl flicked a header toward goal. Klauss ran onto the ball at the right edge of the 6-yard box and slipped a first-touch shot inside the back post to cap the scoring. St. Louis (3-9-6) has one win — a 2-1 victory over San Jose on May 31 — in its last 14 games. Klauss near the left corner of the area, played a short pass to Marcel Hartel and darted toward goal as Hartel tapped it back to Klauss for a rolling finish from the edge of the 6-yard box to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute. Gabriel Pec scored his second goal of the season and his first since March 2 to tie it at 1-1 in the 41st. Pec put away a one-touch finish off a centering pass played by Marco Reus from the right side of the area. Pec stole a misplayed back-pass after St. Louis defender Jayden Reid slipped and fell and then cut back to evade Bürki, who had charged off his line, before casually rolling a shot into a wide-open net to give LA a 3-2 lead in the 87th. Celio Pompeu played an arcing one-touch ball ahead, off a Galaxy giveaway, down the right side to a streaking Klauss, who blasted a rising shot inside the near post and under the crossbar to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead in the 47th minute. Matheus Nascimento scored his first MLS goal in the 21-year-old's third career start to make it 2-2 in the 51st minute. John Nelson played a centering pass to Rues, who tapped back-heel pass from a few yards outside the area to Nascimento for a one-touch finish from near the penalty spot. The Galaxy (1-12-5), the defending MLS Cup champions, beat Real Salt Lake 2-0 last time out and to snap the longest winless streak to begin a season in MLS history at 16 games. St. Louis, which beat the Galaxy 3-0 on March 9, is unbeaten in four straight against LA. ___ AP soccer:
