McIlroy Takes Two-Shot Penalty in Abu Dhabi After Video Shows Grass Pressed Down at the 12th

Rory McIlroy was handed a two-shot penalty after his opening round at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Thursday. Officials reviewed video of his play at the par-four 12th hole and ruled that he had improved his lie. The penalty turned his double bogey six at the hole into a quadruple bogey eight. McIlroy signed for a two-under 70 instead of a 68, eight shots behind leader Francesco Laporta at Yas Links.

The trouble came at the 12th. His approach went through the green, his first chip climbed the slope and rolled back to his feet, and the ball settled in a sandy divot in the rough. As he set his wedge behind the ball to judge the lie, a piece of grass behind the ball laid down and did not spring back. Video of the moment spread quickly on social media during the round, and officials showed McIlroy the footage after he finished.

The tour ruling and McIlroy's answer

The European tour said Rule 8.1b(4) lets a player ground a club lightly in front of or behind the ball, but a player may not press the club on the ground. After reviewing the footage, the tour said, McIlroy was unable to say whether he had pressed the club down. Worried about how the footage looked, he chose to apply the two-stroke penalty himself.

McIlroy said there was no intent and that he plays by the rules. He was only trying to get a feel for the lie, to judge whether he could get a 54-degree wedge onto the back of a ball sitting in the bottom of a sandy divot. He admitted the video "doesn't look very good." He did not feel he pressed down, but he did not want anyone thinking he had got away with something, so he was happy to take the penalty and move on. His playing partner Eugenio Chacarra backed him, saying he did not think McIlroy improved his lie and calling him a class player who never tries to do that.

Birdies limit the damage

McIlroy answered on the course before the ruling was made. He drove the green at the 359-yard par-four 14th for a two-putt birdie, holed from 40 feet at the 15th, and added a third straight birdie at the 16th. He finished with six birdies and no dropped shots outside the 12th. That kept him level with Chacarra, who also shot 70. Patrick Reed, the third man in their group, shot a two-over 74 after a closing double bogey.

Laporta set the pace. Ranked 224th in the world, the Italian shot a bogey-free 10-under 62 with an eagle and eight birdies, and missed a six-foot putt at the last that would have tied the course record. Jon Rahm, playing Yas Links for the first time in his first event in seven weeks, shot a bogey-free 65 to share second at seven under with Sam Bairstow and Bernd Wiesberger.

What the penalty costs in the Race to Dubai

Abu Dhabi is the first of two playoff events that close the European tour season. McIlroy started the week third in the Race to Dubai standings, about 1,000 points behind leader Chacarra and about 330 behind Reed, chasing a fifth straight title and a record-tying eighth in total. The Abu Dhabi winner earns 1,500 points, and next week's Dubai finale offers 2,000 to its winner, so the race stays open. McIlroy has 10 top-three finishes in Abu Dhabi without a win there. He needs a low round on Friday.