Friday’s second round at the 2025 PGA Championship was a painful one for Shane Lowry. The former Open champion missed the cut by one, in no small part thanks to a horrible break that led to devastating bogey.
That bad break also inspired an expletive-laden outburst and furious club slams from the veteran pro. But after his round, Lowry revealed that an ESPN on-course reporter’s interference during that critical moment had contributed to his rageful reaction.
Lowry melts down after bad break at PGA
To set the scene, Lowry was playing the 8th hole at Quail Hollow during Friday’s second round. Despite a roller-coaster round that featured other frustrations and “mud balls,” Lowry found himself right on the cut line at one over.
Better yet, he had a gettable, short par-4 right in front of him. Lowry striped his drive into the fairway, but when he arrived at his ball he found it lying at the bottom of a deep divot.
Knowing you only get relief if your ball comes to rest in your own pitch mark, Lowry nonetheless called in a rules official to be sure.
His next shot from the divot went haywire, ending up in a bunker, and Lowry had had it. He shouted “F— this place!” and slammed his club into the offending divot. Eventually, he bogeyed the hole and finished at two over to miss the cut.
Lowry blasts TV reporter’s interference
After the round, Lowry explained one critical detail that was missed on the broadcast amid that consequential moment on 8. According to Lowry, an ESPN TV reporter tried to interfere with the divot ruling, as he told a media scrum on Friday, as reported by the Irish Independent.
“I was just asking the referee, and the ESPN guy comes straight over and he’s like, ‘That’s not your pitch mark’. And I’m like, ‘That’s not for you to talk about’. That’s for me to call a rules official and decide what happens. I just said, to the rules official, what happens to the guy at 7:10 who’s not on ESPN Live?” Lowry said.
He continued: “It was just that the ESPN guy was a bit too in there involved when he wasn’t asked to be and that’s what annoyed me a lot.”
Lowry also argued that he wasn’t trying to break the rules and get a free drop when he didn’t deserve one, he simply wanted to be certain with “so much at stake.”
“I don’t want a drop because it’s not my pitch mark. But I’m just saying. And it goes back to (the fact that) I had a lot of mud balls again today.”
You can read Lowry’s full comments in the Irish Independent’s story here.
While Lowry missed the cut at this PGA Championship, he admitted Quail Hollow was “one of the only venues that I’ve never played well at.” But he has played well so far this season.
In 12 starts, Lowry already has two runner-up finishes among four top-10s, including at last week’s Truist Championship.
The better news for Lowry? Just when his game is rounding into form, the Open Championship is heading back to Royal Portrush, the site of his Open Championship victory, in two month’s time.
