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Scottie Scheffler and Shane Lowry share their thoughts on Lowry’s two-shot penalty, received on day two of The Open at Royal Portrush.
Lowry was assessed a two-shot penalty after his ball appeared to move in the rough when he was taking a practice swing on the 12th hole at Royal Portrush during the second round of the Open Championship.
Chapters
00:00 – Scottie Scheffler’s reaction to day two
00:40 – Scottie Scheffler reacts to Lowry’s penalty
01:16 – Paul McGinley’s reaction to penalty
01:32 – Shane Lowry on receiving two-shot penalty
#golf #golfing #theopen
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Well, Sheffler admitted afterwards that favorable conditions with the weather at the right times helped him to such a low score. I mean, I I had no idea. I mean, it all depends on conditions. And when we were teen off, I mean, depending on what weather forecast you looked at, I mean, it was going to tell you something different. And, you know, it was super sunny when we were on the driving range. I’m out there in short sleeves, it’s warm out. And then, uh, we get to the first hole, it’s still sunny. And then all of a sudden, you just look around, it’s super dark, and then it just starts pouring rain. You’re like, “Oh, boy. I wonder how long this is going to last. And uh you know, fortunately didn’t pour the whole time. We only had maybe, you know, four or five holes where it was really coming down. And um I was able to take advantage of the holes where we had some had some good weather. One of the great things about the game of golf is that you call your penalties on yourself. Um this situation I I I think it was just it was a very tough tough spot for Shane to be put in. Um and you know, he handled it really well. It’s obviously very frustrating. It’s frustrating for me as, you know, a competitor of his and a player just to be to watch him have to, you know, kind of deal with that because the last thing you want to be known in the game of golf is somebody cheats. And I mean, 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 uh he handled it really well. Ryder Cup winning captain Paul Mcinley said, “For me, this is very harsh and the rule needs a rethink. The spirit of the rule should be what’s important. A penalty should only be applied if the ball can be seen moving with the naked eye. If the ball moved and I causes move, then move two shot penalty. The last thing I’m going to do is sit there and argue and not take the penalty and then get slaughtered all over social media tonight for been a cheat. Like I’m not that. I’m disappointed that they don’t have more camera angles on it. You know, the one zoomed in slow motion. you know, 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. Um, 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. So, but um I had to take the penalty because like I I’m still not sure to be honest whether it was or not, but I had to take the penalty because I can’t have my name talked about or tossed around like that and I just, you know, I get on with it. It’s obviously very disappointing. Golf’s governing body, the RNA, said this. In Shane Lowry’s situation, the movement of the ball to another spot, including the movement of the logo, was discernible to the naked eye. The naked eye test is satisfied whether or not the player was looking at the ball when it moved. It was clear that the ball moved immediately after the player’s club touched foliage close to the ball during a practice swing and that the players actions cause the ball to move. In these circumstances, there is a one stroke penalty and the ball must be replaced. However, as the ball was played from the spot where it was moved to, the player played from a wrong place and incurs a total penalty of two strokes.
31 Comments
Common sense needs to prevail here, not seeing it vs blatant cheating needs a clear distinction, there was no advantage gained by lowry, none at all, this should not result in a penalty shot.
BS penalty.
Meanwhile Justin Rose clearly searched for his ball (from when HE arrived to the ball was found) for more than 3 minutes on hole 16 in one of the rounds. It's just so inconsistent. Some rules are applied strict beyond reason, while some are very slack. Not saying Rose should have gotten a lost ball and I am glad he could play the found ball, but the implementation of the rules are so inconsistent.
I thought it was supposed to be naked eye and they had this a few years ago when some golfer had a penatly after a hundred vbideo replays and they decided it had to be naked eye. The ball clearly didn't move from its original position in the multiple views they showed of it. More instances of a sport starting to be spoiled by people in tv huts
So it all depends on whether there just happens to be a camera around that can zoom in?
From the camera angle I have viewed it looks like unlucky timing. It looks more like the grass stalk supporting the ball finally gave way under the weight of the ball and wasn't anything to do with the practice swing. What a very silly call. If anything the ball sank more deeply in which would have been a disadvantage.
Well handled Shane! BS penalty!
This is why LIV golf is so successful. Bs call and penalty. Long LIV!
I thought after Tiger got nailed a bunch of times cheating, the rules were changed that penalties could not be enforced by call in's or camera man replays.
Sometimes the rules application is pure bs. I can remember when A singer hit a ball into a water hazard on a rainy day and cleaned the mud off his club by dipping it in the lake. A fan watching on tv called up and said he violated the rule about grounding your club in a hazard. Paul was then given the penalty strokes! Pure bs!
totally agree with Paul this was a poor decision golf has so many poor and silly rules and for me this is 1 that should never have been forced just glad it didn't cost him the win, the R&A SHOULD SIT DOWN AND HAVE A LOOK AT THE RULES BOOK AND USE COMMON SENCE BECAUSE MANY ARE OUTDATED AND SILLY IT ONLY HURTS THE GAME AS A HOLE
What a stupid rule!
The open was'nt played in great brittain ,its called the irish open you dult
I could see one stroke penalty if it was after the fact. Or if he did see it, Call it a stroke if he saw it move and called it out. This is a clean solution. I don't think anyone is arguing he didn't move the ball on his swing.
A second stroke for playing the ball without replacing it is where I see room for improvement. He didn't improve his lie and gain an advantage. Intention here is important. If he applied a foot wedge and elevated his ball to clean up his shot, sure thats a egregious penalty worthy action. In those cases, yeah two stroke and perhaps an investigation. In this case his practice swing, long wet grass, some wind and a little happenstance caused the ball to sink a few millimeters. one stroke.
All things considered he owned it. Good on him for that. I feel bad for Shane. If he argues for no penalty, the internet eats him up. I'm positive he didn't intend to move it or see it move. No integrity issue with Shane.
I am fine with instant replay being used to correct obvious issues. Officials should view the tape once and have 10 seconds to make a judgement. No frame by frame, no slow motion. This should be true for all sports.
Ok, say he sees it move, calls the 1 stroke penalty on himself, and “replaces” the ball…can he recreate the original lie exactly, or is it ever so slightly different, and do any of these outcomes actually affect his next shot in a significant way?
Lowry is a vile fake
This is complete BS. A golfer of his stature, with no history of controversial calls regarding ball movement.. A.K.A. Reed, this should have been given another look and review. Not a good overall look for the R&A.
On the first viewing of the replay and knowing what I was looking for I didn’t actually see it. For sure he wouldn’t have seen it. All rules need to be reasonable and this on isn’t.
This rule application is dumb because you couldn’t have moved the ball the 1/2mm that it moved to take it from a 1 stroke to a 2 stroke penalty.
Hate this rule. There was no improvement to the lie, no advantage gained. I’d support that a ball moving but not being displaced should be play on.
Good for you Shane, take it and move on!
Not been bad 2 rory but how is he not winning that major scheffler not far away from what rory won i just think rory should be winning that at home and last major of the year
Did he gain any advantage at all?? I haven't seen the footage!!
When you don't see the ball move and get penalized, then you don't replace the ball because you didn't see it move what a crook od sh!t.
But when the naked eye didn't see it. And he was actually walking away, taking a swing and the club head was 10 inches away from the ball abouts and a little twig the clup head hit caused the ball to move..!! I'm a golfer and this penalty was way to harsh..i was watching the whole thing in real time and didn't see the ball move..
Shane is a player and person of character. Sad that this occurred.
If Lowry had been playing earlier no camera would have been on him. Such BS
I love golf but I must admit many of the rules are way beyond nitpicky. No advantage gained, play on. The spirit of the rules matter too.
Just another rule/law (blah blah) that makes golf a joke.
From what I viewed on screen, the ball moved about an eighth on an inch in a direction away from the hole. Even had Shane seen it, it would have been extremely difficult to “replace” the ball an eighth of an inch forward in rough grass. There was absolutely no advantage gained, IMHO. Well done Shane for taking the ridiculous ruling on the chin.
If you touch the golf ball you moved it if it moves more then a 1/4 turn. If it moves without touching the golf ball, get over it.
Way to much grey area.
Make it simple. You touch it, it moves more then 1/4 turn you take a stroke.
Done! Really!