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.
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.
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