Open Leader Shane Lowry Involved In Lengthy Ruling After Spectator Finds His Ball In Gorse Bushes
The Irishman was forced to take a drop onto a different hole during round two in a ruling that took over 20 minutes
![Shane Lowry speaking to a rules official and hitting a shot after a ruling at The Open](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qLoD3wDgN8wxcWBQRYTGC9-415-80.jpg)
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.
Lowry sprays one left and immediately pissed at the cameraman.Another unreal hot mic 🎤 pic.twitter.com/T6Dx9e44RkJuly 19, 2024
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.
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A shot clock added at The Open is insane. That’s minutes, not seconds!Shane Lowry hit into the gorse and chaos ensued. Took 21 minutes of rulings and to find where to drop before he hit. 21 minutes!!!Not sure how to fix these things, but that’s insane. pic.twitter.com/peR8ji9oVQJuly 19, 2024
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."
Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!
Elliott is currently playing:
Driver: Titleist TSR4
3 wood: Titleist TSi2
Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1
Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW
Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
Ball: Srixon Z Star XV
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