Shane Lowry in action on Friday. Alamy Stock Photo

'Probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done' - Shane Lowry reflects on US Open nightmare

Offaly native missed the cut and incurred a one-stroke penalty for picking his ball up on the green without marking it.

SHANE LOWRY ADMITTED his head was gone when he picked up his ball on the 14th green without marking it first during Friday’s second round at the US Open.

The Offaly native incurred a one-stroke penalty but it made little difference to his chances of making the cut during a sobering experience at Oakmont.

Lowry was up against it after carding 79 on Thursday and even with that rookie mistake yesterday he finished with a 78 to sign off tied for 134th place on 17-over par.

“Probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done,” he told RTÉ about the error on the 14th.

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

Lowry will be back in action at the Travelers Championship next week and, while he is looking forward to returning home to Ireland over the next month, his display at Oakmont leaves as many questions as it does answers.

“I drove it in play a lot [on Thursday], did what I was supposed to do off the tee and then just didn’t have the game that I’ve had for the last while, and then really struggled on the greens and the round got away from me here and that was it,” Lowry said in that RTÉ interview.

“I sort of let it do what I said I wouldn’t do. But that’s Oakmont, that’s the US Open and I just made too many doubles, too many big mistakes and then when I got a couple of chances, I didn’t convert them and I didn’t really do much right, other than I drove the ball as good as I’ve probably driven the ball in a long time. So a weird kind of couple of days.”

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