Rory McIlroy was penalized two shots after his round Thursday for inadvertently improving his lie.
McIlroy, who was 3 under during the first round of the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship when he stepped on the par-4 12th tee, blasted his tee shot 357 yards down the fairway and had only 113 to the hole. His approach came up just short and rolled back into a divot. He then hit a chip shot that didn't get to the surface and rolled back into another sand-filled divot.
That's when McIlroy approached his ball and set a club down behind the ball. When he lifted it back up a couple seconds later, the grass behind the ball remained pressed down, which prompted officials to have a discussion before his scorecard was signed.
He cheated clearly improved his lie
on purpose pic.twitter.com/rOTvYtbR5P
— Matt Dean (@MattDea5437410) November 5, 2026
"They showed me a video from 12. Hit my first chip shot from down on the bottom of the hill, then get up, came back down and rolled into a divot.
"And then as I went to sort of just get a feel for the lie, the close-up of the camera, you can see like a little piece of grass around the divot sort of lies down as I put my club down behind the ball, and it doesn't -- I guess the grass doesn't return back to its original position.
"And I doubt like -- obviously there's no intent. I play by the rules. I feel like this is never really -- I try to do everything that I can to never end up in these positions.
"But just by looking at the video, like it doesn't look -- it doesn't look very good. Obviously that wasn't my intent. I'm just trying to get a feel for the lie. The ball is in a sort of bottom of a sandy divot. I'm trying to feel like if I can get a 54-degree, like, onto the back of the ball, but in the process, this piece of grass has sort of laid down, and it doesn't -- you know, the technical -- I guess the technical term for the rule is if you press down on the piece.
"I don't feel like I pressed down. But at the same time, I don't want the perception of, like, people thinking like I got away with something either. So I'm happy to take a 2-shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow."
Ultimately, it was a two-shot penalty for improving his lie, even inadvertently. McIlroy made a double on the hole, but that changed to a quadruple bogey after the penalty.
McIlroy ultimately signed for a 2-under 70 and is eight shots behind leader Francesco Laporta after the opening round. The penalty is likely to leave a sour taste in his mouth, but McIlroy chalks it up to one bad swing.
"I felt like I played pretty well. It was really like that bad swing on 12 where I missed the green right and made double, which is now a quad," McIlroy said. "But apart from that, I felt like I hit the ball pretty nicely. Yeah, I hit my irons nice, drove the ball well.
"It was a round where I felt like I could have been obviously a lot better, but there was enough encouraging signs in there to go out and hopefully shoot a good one tomorrow."
Cameron Jourdan is an assistant editor of Golfweek, covering college and amateur golf, the PGA Tour and plenty more. Follow Cameron on X/Twitter (@Cam_Jourdan) or Instagram (@GolfweekJourdan).
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rory McIlroy penalized 2 shots for improving his lie in Abu Dhabi: 'Obviously there's no intent'
