Jon Rahm calls for rule changes after Shane Lowry penalty at The Open

Lowry was handed a two-stroke punishment when officials deemed that he had fractionally moved the ball during a practice swing

Two-time major winner Jon Rahm believes the rules of golf need to be changed to avoid players having to accept penalties rather than run the risk of being called a cheat.

Third-round playing partner Shane Lowry was handed a two-stroke punishment after he finished on Friday night when officials reviewed television footage and deemed that he had fractionally moved the ball during a practice swing.

The Irishman, 2019 champion at Royal Portrush, insisted he did not see the incident so could not call the infringement on himself - which he could then have rectified by replacing his ball at a cost of one just stroke - but accepted the sanction as he did not want to be accused of cheating.

It dropped him back from two under and eight off the lead to level par, which appeared too far back to contend over the weekend.

That proved to be the case as Lowry, also suffering from sickness, shot a three-over 74 on Saturday.

"I can relate because I've been there. They've done exactly the same thing to me where they give you the iPad, and say 'look what happened'," said the Spaniard, who recovered from two bogeys in his first three holes to card four birdies for a 69 to get to two under for the tournament.

"You're in a no-win situation because if you say I didn't see it, therefore I don't think it should be a penalty even though the rule says it should be visible to the naked eye, you always run the risk of being called something you don't want to be called.

"And if you take it on the safe side, you're taking a two-shot penalty.

"It needs to be visible without a camera. If the rule says visible to the naked eye, we need to uphold that more than anything else.

"Something needs to be changed for sure, I just don't know exactly how they could change it."

PA