Shane Lowry assessed two-stroke penalty at 2025 British Open

USA Today

5 days ago

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Shane Lowry was assessed a two-stroke penalty after the second round of the 153rd British Open for causing his ball to move at Royal Portrush Golf Club while making a practice swing.
Lowry was preparing to play his second shot from the rough on the par-5 12th hole. His score on the hole was changed from a par to a double bogey. The Irishman, who won the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush, signed instead for a 1-over 72, which left him with a 36-hole total of even-par 142.
Lowry said he was informed of a possible rules infraction while walking up the 15th fairway when a rules official alerted him of the possibility. The R&A spent more than 20 minutes reviewing the violation with Lowry and his fellow competitors, 36-hole leader Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa, after the round was completed.
'I wasn't arguing my case but I was disappointed that they don't have more camera angles on it,' Lowry said. 'I have to take the penalty because I can't have my name talked about or tossed around like that. I'll get on with it but it's really, really disappointing.'
Lowry said he felt the decision had already been made. 'I think they had it in their heads the ball moved, I caused it to move, it's a two-shot penalty,' he said. 'They only had one camera angle, which was zoomed in at the ball. They had none of me actually full length, which we were looking for and needed.'
Video emerged on whether Lowry had committed violation
Video footage emerged on social media of the incident and there was great debate over whether he had committed a violation.
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'If the ball moved, I would have called it on myself. My head was definitely looking down at the ball and I didn't see it moving,' Lowry said. '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.'
Scottie Scheffler asked about Lowry incident
Scheffler was asked for his opinion on the ruling during his post-round press conference.
"Ultimately, in golf, it's up to the player, and I felt like Shane was put in a pretty tough situation there when they were zooming in on his golf ball," Scheffler said. "In the rough it's hard to tell. From what I looked at very briefly on the video, it looked like it was very difficult to see if the ball was moving – sorry, if the ball moved. The camera was kind of zooming in as stuff was happening.
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"One of the great things about the game of golf is that you call your penalties on yourself. This situation, I think it was just – it was a very tough spot for Shane to be put in. He handled it really well. It's obviously very frustrating. It's frustrating for me as a competitor of his and a player to watch him after kind of deal with that because the last thing you want to be known in the game of golf is somebody who cheats.
"I'm not going to state a strong opinion here in the media on whether or not I thought he deserved the penalty, but all I'm going to say is it was a very tough situation."
A tough pill for Lowry to swallow, indeed, but he took his medicine.
'That's hard to take,' he said. 'Look, I'll just have to dust myself off and get out there tomorrow and give it a go.'