Shane Lowry explains expletive-laden outburst towards cameraman at The Open

Shane Lowry has shouldered the blame after he lost his cool with an overzealous cameraman during the second round of The Open. 

Lowry was coasting on Friday at Royal Troon but his round was briefly derailed by what transpired on the par-4 11th hole. 

The 2019 champion golfer of the year sprayed his drive right and hit his second shot, from 176 yards, straight left into a gorse bush. 

Lowry then swore at the cameraman for distracting him before taking a further 20 minutes to complete the hole after there was some confusion over the rules of golf. 

Moments after the exchange he took a huge breath to compose himself, dropped a provisional ball, and played a beauty that settled some 10 feet from the hole. 

Possible chance to escape with a bogey, right? 

Wrong. 

Ordinarily, Lowry would've been able to play that ball had he not found his first. 

Lowry later told reporters that a spectator found it in the bush. 

He then had three options. 

Option one was to attempt to play it. His second option was to take two club-lengths relief from the spot of his ball or go back and re-hit from the previous position. 

Lowry decided the second was the best option and he went on to make a double bogey. 

He bounced back with birdies at 16 and 18 to reach 7-under for the tournament. 

His rounds of 66-69 were good for a two-shot lead over Daniel Brown with the afternoon wave yet to complete their rounds. 

"I did the hard part," Lowry later told reporters.  

"I hit my drive where you could find it, which is obviously a hard thing to do on that hole. I did [catch] a nice lie in the rough. 

"I got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought. 

"You're so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left."

He continued: "Then from there, I hit a great provisional. 

"The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. 

"So I assumed that was okay. 

"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 said he believed he handled the 20-minute process well thanks to his caddie's sage advice. 

He explained: "He kept telling me, 'We have loads of time. We don't need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing here.'" 

And what of the cameraman? 

"I asked him to stop or move back, and he just kind of stayed there.  

"As I was over [my ball], he put his camera up. 

"I kind of saw it out of the corner of my eye, and I should stood off it, [it was] my own fault."

Lowry confirmed that being a tad hot-heated at times is both a blessing and a curse. 

But being himself is what has brought him success, he said. 

So how does he feel about being a front-runner over the weekend at The Open?

"I wouldn't say I'm a good runner," he joked. 

He added: "It's hard to win tournaments. We'll see. I'll tell you Sunday evening."

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