What a disappointing weekend to be an Irish sports fan.
First the football team were torn asunder in the second half of their Euro 2016 Group E clash with Belgium, then the rugby team ran out of gas in South Africa and then this.
Offaly’s Shane Lowry was perfectly positioned for US Open glory as he began his final round with a four-shot lead but a controversial few hours at Oakmont resulted in a Dustin Johnson victory.
The confusion among the field began at the 12th, when Johnson was notified that he may be penalised a stroke for an alleged grounding of his putter on the 5th green.
Rory McIlroy leads criticism of USGA after hugely controversial Dustin Johnson penalty shot incident https://t.co/43OBQ1RGVx
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 19, 2016
USGA officials came in for massive criticism for planting seeds of doubts in Johnson’s head, as well as the heads of others in the running, because nobody knew quite where they stood or how much they could trust the leaderboard.
As it turned out, Johnson’s margin of victory took the weight off of the USGA’s decision but the failure to clarify the situation early was ridiculed by many, with Sky Sports commentator Butch Harmon insisting that Lowry must have been put off by the confusion.
But Lowry, who finished three shots behind Johnson, maintains that learning about the potential penalty shot did not affect his performance and, admirably, the Clara man praised Johnson for the way he dealt with the disarray.
“We were told walking on 12,” Lowry said when asked when he was made aware of the fiasco.
“No, it didn’t affect the way I played. If anything, I credit Dustin for playing the way he played on the way in, having that hanging over him, because I probably would have wanted to know straight away if it was me. So yeah, that’s what we were told.”
Lowry remained well in contention at the start of the back nine but three-putted the 14th, 15th and 16th which resulted in his joint second-place finish after carding a six over 76.
And as heartbreaking an afternoon as it was in Pennsylvania, a disappointed Lowry is treating it as a learning curve in his career.
“I’m bitterly disappointed, standing here,” Lowry said. “It’s not easy to get yourself in a position I got myself in today. It was there for the taking and I didn’t take it.
“But you can only learn from your mistakes. I always say it’s only a mistake if you don’t learn from it.
“I’m sure I learned a lot from today and I don’t know what it is yet, but when I’m in that position again, and I know I will be, I’ll handle it probably a little bit better.”
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