‘I play by the rules’: Rory McIlroy disputes rare rules breach that cost him 2 shots

When Rory McIlroy entered the scorer’s tent after his opening round at the 2026 Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship on Thursday, he thought he was about to sign for a four-under 68.

He thought wrong.

Following a lengthy consultation with rules officials after his round, McIlroy was hit with a two-shot penalty for improving his lie on the 12th hole. The punishment turned his 68 into a 70.

McIlroy accepted the penalty. But during his post-round press conference, he openly disputed that he had actually broken the rule.

Here’s what you need to know.

McIlroy gets two-shot penalty for improving lie after video review in Abu Dhabi

McIlroy came into the opening round in Abu Dhabi with one goal in mind: try to overtake Eugenio Chacarra in the Race to Dubai rankings.

Take a quick look at his Round 1 scorecard, which featured six birdies, and it would seem like he mostly accomplished the job. That is except for one jarring crooked number: an 8 on the 12th hole.

Unsurprisingly, that is where McIlroy’s rules blunder took place. Fresh off a birdie at 11 that moved him to three under, McIlroy’s approach shot on the par-4 12th ended up just over the green and at the bottom of a steep hill.

When he attempted to chip it on with his third shot, his ball nearly crested the hill before rolling back to McIlroy’s feet. His ball ended up in a divot in some squirrelly rough.

In a close-up video of the moment, McIlroy’s wedge can be seen tamping down some long grass behind his ball. When McIlroy lifts the clubhead, the grass does not rebound into its original position.

McIlroy claimed he did not realize this had happened until scoring officials confronted him with the video in the scorer’s tent.

“Yeah, 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,” McIlroy said in his post-round press conference on Thursday. “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.”

The problem? McIlroy’s actions were a clear violation of the Rules of Golf. According to Rule 8.1, players are prohibited from improving their lie, area of intended stance or the area of intended swing. Rule 8.1b specifically prohibits players from moving, bending or breaking any “growing or attached natural object,” such as grass.

Rule 8.1b directly calls out “pressing the club on the ground” to affect one’s lie.

Making matters worse was the fact that McIlroy ended up making a double-bogey 6 on 12 before the penalty. Once he was assessed two shots, his score on the hole ballooned to a quadruple-bogey 8.

McIlroy says he disagrees with ruling but is ‘happy’ to accept it

Later in his press conference, McIlroy made it clear that he in no way intentionally improved his lie on the 12th.

“And I doubt like — obviously there’s no intent. I play by the rules,” McIlroy said. “I feel like this is never really — I try to do everything that I can to never end up in these positions.”

And while he acknowledged that the evidence in the video “doesn’t look very good,” he still defended his actions in the moment.

“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,” McIlroy explained. “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.”

McIlroy then revealed that he didn’t believe he committed a penalty at all, despite the video evidence. But he was willing to accept the penalty to avoid the “perception” that he was intentionally trying to get an unfair advantage.

“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,” McIlroy said. “So I’m happy to take a 2-shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow.”

Despite his costly rules incident, McIlroy sounded confident with the state of his game on Day 1.

“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.”

With 54 holes left in Abu Dhabi and one remaining tournament after this week, McIlroy will have to avoid any further violations if he wants to win a record-tying eighth Race to Dubai title.