Former champion Shane Lowry said his Open Championship at Royal Portrush had been “hard to take” after a shooting three over in his third round on Saturday.
The world number 18, who lifted the Claret Jug when the championship was last staged at the Northern Irish links in 2019, was assessed a two-stroke penalty after his second round on Friday and returned to the course the next day suffering from a virus.
“To be honest, I’m gutted,” said the Irishman.
“I wanted to do well so badly today and this week. I put so much into this week that, yeah, it’s hard to take.
“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.”
Lowry, who said he “was not too keen” to discuss the penalty incident for a second time, birdied the 13th on Saturday to get back to level par for the championship but followed that with a quadruple bogey on the next hole and dropped a further shot at the 17th.
He said his illness contributed to a “lack of energy” in the closing stretch of holes.
“Honestly, every bathroom I went in and tried to throw up, I couldn’t,” he added.
“It’s just such a bad feeling. I think 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.”