Frazzled Shane Lowry makes U.S. Open blunder: 'One of the stupidest things I've ever done'

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OAKMONT, Pa. — The U.S. Open at Oakmont can do many things to a player’s mind, and apparently it did them all to Shane Lowry on Friday, when the burly Irishman forgot to mark his ball before picking it up on the 14th green.

“It’s probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done,” he said after his round.

After a stunned moment of bewilderment and an awkward glance at his caddie, Lowry smiled, took off his hat and wiped his brow before looking at his playing partner and friend Rory McIlroy and having a laugh.

“I just picked the ball up, had the ball in my hand, turned around to (my caddie) Darren, and he basically said to me, ‘What you doing?’ I put it back down and played on and knew it was going to be a penalty. I didn’t know whether it would be one or two. But maybe, just my mind was somewhere else.”

It likely wouldn’t have been quite as funny had Lowry not teed off on the hole at 14-over par. Once the penalty was added to his bogey, the 2019 Open Champion walked to the 15th tee at 16-over for the week.

“I still tried. I fought over every shot. That’s all you can do,” he added.

The rules of golf are quite lenient when it comes to marking your ball. You can mark it in behind the ball, in front of the ball, beside the ball. You can use a ball marker, or a coin, or a poker chip; you can even use a can of beer. Even holding your putter next to the spot while you clean your ball is okay, provided it doesn’t move.

But you can’t, and this part is quite clear, use nothing like Lowry did on Friday.

Before you get too wild, and we know many of you have tried, you also can’t use objects you find on the green such as a twig, a leaf, or a stone. It has to be any artificial object “used, worn or held by a player or player’s caddie.”

Where do we stand on using pocket lint? We’re going to need to call in a rules official for that.

Not Shane Lowry.