Open Leader Shane Lowry Involved In Lengthy Ruling After Spectator Finds His Ball In Gorse Bushes

Shane Lowry was involved in a lengthy ruling during round two of the Open Championship after hitting a wayward approach shot into thick gorse bushes at Royal Troon.

Lowry hit a quick hook straight left into the vegetation on the 11th and immediately dropped another ball down to play as his fourth shot. He hit a beauty up onto the green to set up a bogey-saving putt.

The broadcast showed him at the time gesturing to a camera operator, who Lowry believed put him off.

It appeared that his ball was gone but it later emerged that he called his dropped ball a 'provisional', which therefore means that if the original ball is found he must continue playing that. 

Lowry was clearly happy to go and play the second ball that he had stuck onto the green but a spectator had found his first ball nestled down in the gorse bushes.

"The chap who found it is feeling awful," David Howell said on the Sky Sports feed.

As Lowry's ball was found, he had to play that - and as it was unplayable he was forced to take a penalty drop. He had three options: 1) go back to where he played his original shot from; 2) take a two-club-length drop no nearer to the hole; 3) go back in line as far as he liked while keeping the pin and where the ball was sitting in line.

He went for option three and went back in line back into the rough to the left of the 12th fairway to leave himself a blind wedge shot as his fourth shot.

Lowry wedged it back over the bushes onto the front of the 11th green, much further away than his original dropped ball, and went on to two-putt for a double bogey.

The Irishman was two ahead at the top of the leaderboard prior to the incident, having made three birdies and one bogey in his first 10 holes. He dropped back to five-under to trail overnight leader Daniel Brown.

"I did the hard part. I hit my drive where you could find it, which is obviously a hard thing to do on that hole. I did a nice lie in the rough. I got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought," Lowry explained after his round.

"You're so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left. Then from there, I hit a great provisional. The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. So I assumed that was okay.

"Then we get down there, and somebody had found it. So apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it, which I thought, if you declared it lost before it was found, that you didn't, you didn't have to go and identify it.

"I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes, it was whatever it was, of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, and I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing, and I felt like Darren [Reynold, Lowry's caddie] did a great job too just kind of - he kept telling me, we have loads of time. We don't need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing here. 

"To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6. It wasn't a disaster. I was still leading the tournament."