Suffering Shane Lowry was smacked by stomach cramps just hours after being sickened by his two-shot penalty at The Open. The 2019 champion at Royal Portrush has endured an arduous return to the scene of his most-famous triumph. Lowry was caught in a Friday night storm when he was docked a couple of strokes for a rules infringement over a moving ball. The Irish star is adamant he didn’t see it happen and would have called the foul against himself if he did. Nonetheless, Lowry accepted the punishment as he did want to face any mischievous finger-pointing or calls of cheating. Matters got worse for the Claret Jug winner of six years ago when, having returned to his base following the controversial ruling against him, he started to feel unwell with a virus hitting him. Lowry struggled to a Saturday 74 as he battled against the anguish of the penalty and the pain of the illness and he gave an insight into the issues afterwards. Asked how he was feeling, he said: “No, not great. I haven’t eaten. I tried to get a protein drink down me after eight holes and I felt like throwing up all over the place. “It’s hard to take. You get home late and have to dust yourself off. Wake up at 2.30am with cramps in my stomach. I know we have it in the house. Ivy had a couple of days ago. [Wife] Wendy had it yesterday. Me and [daughter] Iris have it today. It will be gone by the holidays next week. So at least that’s a plus.” Lowry actually sat down on the ninth fairway for a spell as he toiled and he continued: “Honestly, every bathroom I went in and tried to throw up, I couldn’t. It’s just such a bad feeling. “I think my lack of energy towards the end, maybe, did me in. Look, I don’t want to make excuses. It is what it is. It’s just really bad timing obviously. “It’s been a tough day, but I’m not going to make excuses. I played poorly and obviously had a bad finish. “I wanted to do well so badly this week. I put so much into this week that, yeah, it’s hard to take. It’s golf. It doesn’t always go your way, but you just need to kind of keep plugging away. “The annoying thing for me today is I didn’t get to enjoy today as much as I would have liked. Saturday at The Open in your home country, I should enjoy it a lot more than I did, just because of how I felt. “Hopefully I get out Sunday morning and try and enjoy it as best I can, try to shoot the best score I can, and then have a couple weeks off before the playoffs. “For me, my big mindset for the next few months is about the Ryder Cup and trying to win that. That’s where all my work is going towards over the next while.” Lowry, meanwhile, opted to stay away from the topic of the two-shot penalty having dealt with the issue concisely on Friday night. Fellow players have come in support of him with Jon Rahm saying the rule has to change, but the penalty victim said: “I’m not too keen to talk on it too much. I think we said enough about it last night. Quite supportive, I would say, from the other players. They all feel bad for me that two shots is a lot to give up. I don’t really have much else to say actually.”