The 11th hole at the Open Championship has been one of the toughest holes on the Royal Troon Golf Club. Though Shane Lowry got past it, his second shot from the right rough caused massive social media angst. As his ball was amiss, he took a provisional. But there was a misunderstanding. “The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. So I assumed that was O.K. 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,” Lowry shared. But because someone had already found his ball before he hit the provisional, things got tricky..

Now under Rule 18.3c (3): When a provisional ball has not yet become the ball in play, it must be abandoned … when the original ball is found on the course outside the penalty area before the end of the three-minute search time. The player must play the original ball as it lies.

No doubt, it became a nightmare for the 3-time PGA Tour winner, Shane Lowry. He had to go back as far as the 12th fairway and play the found ball. The R&A rule official, Charlie Maran, also explained how the provisional ball became the wrong ball. However, all this back-and-forth led to something bigger.

From losing the ball to finding it again and hitting the shot, Lowry took nearly 20 minutes. Till then, the Open Championship came to a halt, and golfers were waiting on the tee for their turn.

Lowry took the fourth shot on the 11th hole and settled for a double bogey six. The time taken to follow a simple ruling was, as per some fans, unbearable, and they ridiculed the PGA Tour pro a ton for this.

Golf fans were raging: Demand a penalty for Shane Lowry for taking overtime…

Shane Lowry was not given any penalty for taking 20 minutes over and making everyone in his group and behind him wait for their turn. And the golf world was not pleased with this. A fan questioned, “Is Shane Lowry getting a penalty soon for dragging his feet 20 minutes for what is clearly an unplayable lie and a drop?”

It should be noted that in the 2024 season, no golfer has been penalized for slow play so far on the PGA Tour or at any major. But the Tour had introduced a fine of as much as $20,000 if a pro was found to have committed consistent violations. Fortunately, Lowry isn’t on that list yet. However, even analyst Smylie Kaufman pointed out on the broadcast how long they were taking.

“It has been pretty insane the last 10, 15 minutes because they’re holding the whole course up and Shane’s trying to figure out the right decision,” he was heard saying. But some of his other antics too rubbed fans the wrong way.

At first, the 2019 Open Championship winner lost his patience with the cameraman as his fourth shot on the 488-yard par-4 11th. “As I was over the ball, I could just see you putting your f**king camera up. Just get out of the way. Just get back there. F**k’s sake,” he scolded the cameraman. And then, his slow play infuriated people.

In comparison to him, Matt Fitzpatrick has always had a fast pace while playing any event. And the drama ensued when these two were paired for the first two rounds of the 152nd Open. Seemingly, the English pro would not have liked the 1-time Open winner taking 20 minutes to hit a shot. Thus, one fan joked, “Matt Fitzpatrick HATES slow play. He’s gonna stab Lowry in the eye with a tee any minute.”

• “Come on Shane get on with it, must be close to get a slow play penalty as well.”
• “This is utterly ridiculous from Lowry. You don’t get all day. Drop it and hit a shot. Should be penalised further for slow play.”

The question is, can pros be penalized for slow play? Per rules 6-7, a pro should not take more than 40 seconds to hit their shots. However, in the case of Lowry, it was not a normal shot, but he was finding the correct drop to follow the provisional ball ruling. Hence, he was not penalized for it. But if he takes him more than 40 seconds to hit another hit, a penalty may follow.