The Open Championship 2025 Friday round for Shane Lowry took a dramatic turn when officials hit him with a two-shot penalty after his ball moved during a practice swing. Cameras captured the moment, and after a 20-minute deliberation, the R&A enforced the rule, adding one shot for causing the ball to move and another for playing from the wrong place. Following the penalty, Paul McGinley said, “I didn’t notice anything, and I am sure Shane didn’t notice it,” and called the penalty “very harsh.” 

Now, on Saturday, the R&A is finally explaining itself. In a recent statement, the governing body first highlighted how the ruling hinges on three key conditions: whether the ball actually moved from its original spot, whether the movement was visible to the naked eye, and whether it’s known or virtually certain that the player’s actions caused the movement. All three conditions must be met for a penalty to be assessed, meaning if the movement wasn’t visible or it’s unclear if the player caused it, no penalty is given.

As per the R&A, Lowry’s situation met all these conditions. In its Saturday statement, it said, “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 player’s actions caused the ball to move.”

The R&A added, “In these circumstances there is 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.”  Before the ruling, Lowry was just a couple of shots inside the projected cut line, which made the two-stroke penalty potentially crucial to his chances of advancing. The most frustrating thing, however, was the fact that Lowry didn’t get to know that he was in the middle of a controversy until he reached the par-4 15th hole.

However, despite R&A’s explanations, McGinley isn’t convinced and said, “the rule needs a re think. 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.” And indeed, the ruling is interesting, if you consider one thing. A 2017 rule might have been pivotal in Lowry’s case, as it states: “If the committee concludes that such facts could not reasonably have been seen with the naked eye and the player was not otherwise aware of the potential breach, the player will be deemed not to have breached the Rules, even when video technology shows otherwise.” 

So, where did the ruling come from? Well, while it cannot be definitively answered, the R&A brought this ruling just a month after Lexi Thompson’s mishap at the 2017 ANA Inspiration. On April 2, Lexi Thompson was penalized 4 strokes for playing from the wrong spot and signing an incorrect scorecard, after a TV viewer reported the infraction via email, which occurred the previous day; she ultimately lost in a playoff despite leading by 2 strokes on the back nine.

Although Shane Lowry did admit that he didn’t notice the ball, he still decided to accept the ruling as, “I can’t have my name talked about or tossed around like that, and I just get on with it.” But was the ruling unfair? Lowry accepted hesitantly, “A little bit.” Lowry eventually finished his second round with a score of 72. Despite the disappointing ruling, however, Shane Lowry is gaining massive support from his fellow pros at The Open. 

Scottie Scheffler believes Shane Lowry was “put in a pretty tough situation” at The Open

Scottie Scheffler, one of Shane Lowry’s playing partner at The Open Championship, sympathized with him after the two-shot penalty, saying: “I’m not going to state a strong opinion here in the media on whether or not I thought he deserved the penalty, but all I’m going to say is it was a very tough situation for him to be put in, and I thought he handled it really well.”

Scheffler understood the difficulty in judging the ball’s movement, especially since it was in the rough and the camera had to zoom in to detect it. He praised Lowry for handling the situation well, acknowledging the frustration it caused. He added, “It’s obviously very frustrating. It’s frustrating for me as a competitor of his and a player to watch him after kind of deal with that because the last thing you want to be known in the game of golf is somebody who cheats.”

Despite the penalty, Lowry managed to make the cut by a single shot. However, the penalty dropped him 2 shots further behind the leader, Scheffler, starting the weekend 10 shots back instead of 8. In his 2019 The Open Championship win, Lowry had taken control of the tournament with a 63 on Saturday at the same Portrush course.

Now, he said on Friday, “I’m just going to have to take it — it’s a bad break — and move on. I’ll just have to dust myself off and get out there tomorrow and give it a go.” His other playing partner, Collin Morikawa, has yet to make a statement on this situation; however, considering the “imperceptible movement,” it is likely he would have a similar opinion.