The R&A has released an official statement following an incident where Shane Lowry was assessed a two-stroke penalty for accidentally causing his ball to move and failing to replace it to its original position on the 12th hole of his second round at The Open Championship.

Below is their statement in response to the incident:

"During Round 2, Shane Lowry’s ball was seen to have moved while he was taking a practice swing for his second shot from the rough at the 12th hole.

The Rules require three things to be assessed in such situations:

1. Did the ball leave its original position and come to rest on another spot?

2. Was the ball’s movement to another spot discernible to the naked eye?

and

3. If the ball did come to rest on another spot and the movement was discernible to the naked eye, is it known or virtually certain that the player’s actions caused the ball to move?

Assessing whether the movement of the ball was visible to the naked eye in such a situation assumes the player being in a normal address position for the stroke.

In Shane Lowry’s situation, the movement of the ball to another spot, including the movement of the logo, was discernible to the naked eye. The naked eye test is satisfied whether or not the player was looking at the ball when it moved.

It was clear that the ball moved immediately after the player’s club touched foliage close to the ball during a practice swing and that the player’s actions caused the ball to move.

In these circumstances there is a one stroke penalty and the ball must be replaced. However, as the ball was played from the spot where it was moved to, the player played from a wrong place and incurs a total penalty of two strokes."

Lowry was assessed a one-stroke penalty for causing the ball to move and a one-stroke penalty for failing to replace the ball to its initial position. The Irishman’s score was changed from 70 to 72 and moved him from 2-under to even par for the tournament.