Scottie Scheffler weighs in on Shane Lowry's two-shot penalty at The Open

Scottie Scheffler says Shane Lowry handled a 'rough situation' well after he was assessed a two-shot penalty during the second round of The Open.

Scheffler vaulted up the leaderboard on day two of the final men's major of the year with a scintillating 64 amid torrential downpours. 

But the big talking point of the day at Royal Portrush was what happened to the 2019 Open champion on the 12th hole. 

The R&A judged that the 38-year-old Irishman caused his ball to move during a practice swing over his second shot. 

Lowry managed to make the cut despite being slapped with the penalty, but it was clear that he had mixed feelings over the ruling. 

He said he would not be labelled a 'cheat' but was disappointed there wasn't more footage of the incident .

"The last thing I want to do is sit there and argue and not take the penalty and then get slaughtered all over social media tonight for being a cheat," he said. 

Lowry stressed he was not looking at his ball when it happened. 

Scheffler, who is looking win his second major championship title of 2025 and fourth overall since his breakout 2022 campaign, said his playing partner was put in a rough situation. 

"Ultimately in golf it's up to the player, and I felt like Shane was put in a pretty tough situation there when they were zooming in on his golf ball," Scheffler said. 

"In the rough it's hard to tell. From what I looked at very briefly on the video, it looked like it was very difficult to see if the ball was moving... sorry, if the ball moved. The camera was kind of zooming in as stuff was happening."

Scheffler added: "One of the great things about the game of golf is that you call your penalties on yourself. 

"This situation, I think it was just - it was a very tough spot for Shane to be put in. He handled it really well. 

"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."

So what did Scheffler think? Unsurprisingly, the 29-year-old decided to sit on the fence.

"I'm not going to state a strong opinion here in the media on whether or not I thought he deserved the penalty," Scheffler said. 

"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 will take a one-shot lead over England's Matthew Fitzpatrick into the weekend. 

His second round featured eight birdies and one bogey as he advanced to 10-under overall. 

Brian Harman, the 2023 Open winner at Royal Liverpool, is third on eight-under with China's Haotong Li. 

Five players, including Robert MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton, are four strokes adrift of Scheffler. 

Masters champion Rory McIlroy thrilled and frustrated in equal measure on Friday and is seven behind the top-ranked Scheffler. 

Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith and Collin Morikawa were among the notables to miss the cut. 

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