Shane Lowry's ball moving controversy heats up quickly at The Open Championship

Shane Lowry was handling himself quite well at Royal Portrush for the 2025 Open Championship as he returned to the Northern Ireland course for the first time since his maiden major championship victory back in 2019. However, on Friday while playing the Par-5 12th hole, a frustrating day at The Open just got a whole lot worse with controversy over whether or not Lowry caused his ball to move in the rough with a practice swing.

Lowry, who was sitting at 1-under and tied for 25th while playing the 12th hole, hit his tee shot into one of the rough-laden native areas to the left of the fairway. He was none too pleased with that, but was preparing to lay up from the rough with a pretty tricky lie on a bit of a slope and with the long grass soaked with moisture from the rains. As he was taking his practice swing, though, it appeared that his ball moved as he swung in the grass beside the lie, as the USA Network/NBC cameras spotted.

The broadcast interviewed The Open's rules official from the R&A who said they would be reviewing the swing and the ball moving to determine if a penalty should be assessed. However, the video looks pretty damning, which the rules official admitted to when pressed on the issue.

Shane Lowry's ball appeared to move on practice swing in Open Championship blunder

That's kind of been the day that Lowry has had in his second round. Not only did he get on the tee just about when the awful weather started with torrential rains and inconsistent winds, but he couldn't seem to find the right groove to make a push closer to the leaders at Royal Portrush.

If you need any indication of how his day was going even before this ball-moving controversy, on the prior hole, he hooked his drive far left and a hot mic on the tee box caught him going off a bit on the course and, more likely so, the day he was having.

But back to the possibility of the ball moving, the worst part for Lowry is that, if it is deemed that his ball moved because of the practice swing, he didn't realize it and continued to play it to finish out the hole, which he made par on. That could prove quite devastating and detrimental, especially with the cut line looming.

What penalty would Shane Lowry get for his ball moving?

Per the USGA rules, Lowry would receive a two-stroke penalty for his round if it's deemed that he caused his ball to move and then played it. The key to that part of the rule is that Lowry didn't return to the ball to its original lie. Of course, if you watch the video, that's because he clearly didn't notice that the ball moved. However, that doesn't matter by the letter of golf's rules.

Had Lowry noticed and placed the ball where it lied before moving, it would've only been a one-stroke penalty. But because he continued to play the rest of the hole without doing so, even if he didn't know it, that's an additional stroke.

Why that matters is because Lowry, though at 1-under, would end up in an unexpected sweat to make the cut if the penalty were assessed. The projected cut is at +2 for the tournament, and Lowry would be just one stroke clear of that number after incurring a two-shot penalty.

Shane Lowry assessed a two-stroke penalty for ball moving incident

Lowry, who finished the round at 1-under, was eventually assessed a two-stroke penalty for hitting a ball that had moved from its original lie. The R&A reached the decision to assess a penalty after consulting with Lowry while watching the video after his round.

Lowry dropped from 2-under for the tournament and sitting tied for 17th on the leaderboard to now being even-par and tied for 34th this week.

However, the decision to assess a penalty looks like the right one. It's unfortunate that Lowry didn't realize what had happened, which ultimately cost him another stroke when he hit a ball that had moved. At the same time, though, even the length of time that the R&A and rules officials were taking to discuss a penalty had some golf fans on edge that he might "get away" with something like this.

Lowry will still play the weekend at Royal Portrush, though this penalty makes the possibility of him contending again as he did in 2019 highly unlikely.

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