Why Shane Lowry was handed two-shot penalty at The Open 2025

Independent

2 days ago

Shane Lowry was handed a two-stroke penalty at The Open 2025 following a review after his second round.
The R&A determined the former Open champion warranted a penalty after his ball moved after taking a practice swing on the 12th hole in his second round at Royal Portrush.
Lowry had driven his tee shot into the rough and could be seen taking a practice swing with footage bringing into question whether the ball moved slightly.
The R&A informed Lowry on the 15th hole that he would be required to sit down and review the video footage with them after he concluded his round and a statement has now been released to explain the process.
'The Rules require three things to be assessed in such situations:
'1. Did the ball leave its original position and come to rest on another spot?
'2. Was the ball's movement to another spot discernible to the naked eye?
'3. If the ball did come to rest on another spot and the movement was discernible to the naked eye, is it known or virtually certain that the player's actions caused the ball to move?'
The result of assessing the slo-motion replays was a two-stroke penalty for the Irishman, who dropped to level par for the tournament.
Lowry had posted a second consecutive round of one-under par having played through a downpour of rain on the back and admitted he didn't know anything about the potential penalty until the officials spoke to him on the 15th.
'Well, I didn't know anything happened until walking up the 15th fairway and then the rules official came over and told me that there was a possibility the ball moved on the 12th for my second shot,' Lowry revealed after his round.
'I've asked him, how many shot penalty is that if it did, and he said, two. Obviously then I feel like I'm on the cut mark then, which is not very nice. I feel like I played well on the way in and then obviously waited to see.
'I was in there with the rules official and wasn't arguing my case, but I'm disappointed that they don't have more camera angles on it. The one zoomed in slow motion -- they're trying to tell me if it doesn't move from the naked eye, if you don't see it moving, it didn't move.
'I told them I definitely was looking down towards the ball as I was taking that practice swing, and I didn't see it move. I'm still not sure whether it was or not, but I had to take the penalty and I just get on with it.
'It's obviously very disappointing. I felt like I played really, really well today. And yeah, that's hard to take. Look, I'll just have to dust myself off and get out there tomorrow and give it a go.'