Did Shane Lowry cause his ball to move?
That’s the question that wasn’t immediately answered after Lowry’s ball moved ever so slightly after a practice swing on his second shot at No. 11 during Round 2 of the British Open.
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The R&A, which governs the British Open, didn’t make a ruling immediately, telling Lowry as he walked up the 15th fairway that they would wait until the end of his round to view the footage with him, and then make a determination. Lowry, who says he did not see the ball move, didn’t realize anything was afoot until the rules official approached him on 15.
“I’ve asked him, how many shot penalty is that if it did, and he said, two,” Lowry explained. “Obviously then I feel like I’m on the cut mark then, which is not very nice.”
After the post-round meeting with Lowry and his playing partners, Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler, the R&A assessed Lowry with a 2-shot penalty. Lowry, who won the last time The Open was held at Royal Portrush, had finished his round at 2-under for the tournament. He’s now at even par.
Lowry said he didn’t argue his case with rules officials, but that he feels they had already made their determination before the meeting.
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“I think they had it in their heads the ball moved, I caused it to move, it’s a two-shot penalty,” he said.
He continued: “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.
“But I had to take the penalty because … I can’t have my name talked about or tossed around like that, and I just get on with it.”
The rules have been relaxed a bit when it comes to a ball accidentally moving. It’s not a cut-and-dried penalty. USGA rules, which the R&A recognizes, allow for leniency when it comes to “natural forces,” which include water and gravity. The grass beneath Lowry’s ball was certainly wet, as rain pelted Royal Portrush throughout the day.
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The only reason anyone saw the ball move was because of technology. Lowry’s group, featuring the World No. 1 in Scheffler, was a “featured group” as part of the broadcast, meaning there were an abundance of cameras following them. One of those cameras happened to be focussed entirely on Lowry’s ball before the shot.
“Ultimately in golf it’s up to the player, and I felt like Shane was put in a pretty tough situation there,” Scheffler said. “When you’re zooming in on his golf ball, in the rough, it’s hard to tell.
“From what I looked at very briefly, it was very difficult to see if the ball moved. The camera was kind of zooming in as stuff was happening.
“… It’s frustrating for me as a competitor of his and a player to watch him 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 a penalty. But all I’m going to say is it was a very tough situation for him to be put in and I thought that he handled it really well.”
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Does it look like Lowry caused the ball to move? Probably. But could anyone determine this with absolute certainty? The R&A, apparently, did.
“If the ball moved and I caused it to move and it moved, it’s a two-shot penalty,” 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.”
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