British Open 2024: Shane Lowry’s Royal Troon rules saga, simplified | How To

TROON, Scotland — Shane Lowry was coasting via the second spherical on the British Open, enjoying some nice, boring golf. Lowry ranked fifth in greens in regulation and seventh in fairways hit via his first 27 holes, and led the sector by two pictures.

Then the 2019 Open champion arrived at Royal Troon’s par-4 eleventh gap. With railway tracks flanking the fitting facet and gorse bushes on the left, it isn’t simply one of many hardest holes on the course, however in all of main championship golf.

It wasn’t the drive which undid Lowry on this gap, although. His drive discovered the tough on the fitting facet of the opening, and left him 176 yards from the inexperienced.

“I did the laborious half,” Lowry stated afterward. “I hit my drive the place you may discover it, which is clearly a tough factor to do on that gap. I had a pleasant lie within the tough.”

Irritated, Lowry took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then dropped a provisional ball within the occasion he could not discover his first shot. He hit it nicely: That shot completed about 15 toes away.

Lowry most well-liked to play that ball and hopefully salvaged a bogey. Below the Guidelines of Golf, that might have been advantageous until his unique first ball not been discovered. Lowry informed the principles officers he wished to play on, till one knowledgeable him {that a} spectator who thought he was being useful had discovered it. You possibly can spot right here when Lowry then confirms it’s his.

That left Lowry with three choices:

After some deliberation, Lowry selected choice two. His aid acquired him to an affordable path of trampled tough.

From there, Lowry pitched his ball 70 yards to the entrance of the inexperienced, then two-putted for a double bogey.

Afterward, Lowry defined what was happening in his thoughts in the intervening time.

“I felt like via that entire means of that 20 minutes, it was no matter it was, of taking the drop, seeing the place I might drop, and I felt like I used to be very calm and composed and actually knew that I used to be doing the fitting factor, and I felt like [caddie] Darren [Reynolds] did a terrific job too simply sort of … he stored telling me, we now have a great deal of time. We needn’t rush this. We simply must do the fitting factor right here.

“To be trustworthy, I used to be glad sufficient leaving there with a 6. It was not like … it wasn’t a catastrophe. I used to be nonetheless main the event.”

Certainly, Lowry adopted it up with three consecutive pars, then birdied two of his final three holes to shut with a 69 and end 36 holes main the event at seven underneath.

Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The title of the ultimate males’s main of the golf season is a topic of continued dialogue. The occasion’s official title, as defined on this op-ed by former R&A boss Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. However since many United States golf followers proceed to confer with it because the British Open, and search information across the occasion accordingly, Golf Digest continues to make the most of each names in its protection.