The 2019 champion is facing an uphill fight at Royal Portrush to get anywhere near contention and wasn’t pleased to be penalised for an incident on the 12th hole during his second round – but accepted a two-shot penalty
Sickened Shane Lowry reluctantly accepted a two-shot penalty at the Open because he did not want to be called “a cheat”.
The 2019 champion was ruled to have moved his ball during a practice swing on the 12th hole with his ball in thick rough. The Irishman did not call the infringement on himself but was slapped with the penalty after a video review following his round.
Lowry and his playing partners – Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa – spent 20 minutes reviewing the video footage once they had finished on Friday evening.
Asked if he felt the ruling was unfair, Lowry said: “A little bit. 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.
“I think they had their decision made (before he reviewed the video). 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. But I’m out there signing for a 72 there now.”
The penalty saw Lowry card a 72 instead of a 70 and fall to level par for the tournament.
“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,” Lowry’s playing partner Scottie 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.
“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.”
Lowry was also slapped with a one-shot penalty at the US Open last month when he picked up his ball during his second round before marking it. With players on one-over par making the cut, former champions Cameron Smith, Collin Morikawa, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke will not play the weekend.
Masters champion and home hero Rory McIlroy is joint-12th after a round of 69 left him three under. And leading the way is World No.1 Scheffler, whose second round 64 was his lowest round in a major and he is the only player to birdie the notoriously-difficult short 16th twice to be five under for the par threes this week.
“I felt like I hit a few more fairways than I did yesterday, hit some really nice iron shots and was able to hole some putts,” said the American, who in his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday had spoken about being unfulfilled by his success in golf.
“I feel I am hitting the ball pretty solid and I am excited for the rest of the tournament. We are only halfway done.”
Matt Fitzpatrick is one shot behind Scheffler, an impressive 66 putting him in an excellent position to end a 33-year wait for an English winner of The Open – if he can get the better of the American.
The last world number one to lead or share the lead after 36 holes of an Open was Tiger Woods in 2006. He went on to win and on this evidence you would not back against the bookies’ favourite to claim his first Claret Jug and the third leg of a career Grand Slam.