Rory McIlroy has been hit with a two-shot penalty in his opening round of the 2026 Abu Dhabi Championship.McIlroy is eyeing his first career win in the event to boost his chances of claiming a record-equalling eighth Race to Dubai title this year.McIlroy insists there was no intent after a video showed him appearing to improve his lie on the 12th holeAFPBut that task has been made a whole lot harder following a controversial situation in his opening round on Thursday.After carding an 68 at Yas Links, McIlroy was in a tie for 13th but his score has now been hit with a two-stroke penalty.The Grand Slam champion allegedly improved his lie in the rough on the par-4 12th.McIlroy hit his tee shot down the middle of the fairway but tug his approach shot way right on the 480-yard hole.He needed two chip shots to get onto the green before making a double bogey.But the penalty occurred on his second chip shot and that has increased his score to a quadruple bogey, sending him down the leaderboard.View Tweet: https://x.com/hashtag/PENALTY?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwKeen to avoid being accused of cheating, the Northern Irishman said after the sanction: “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 I guess the grass doesn’t return back to its original position. “Obviously there’s no intent. I play by the rules. 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 very good. McIlroy insists he did not mean to cheatGetty“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 onto the back of the ball, but in the process, this piece of grass has sort of laid down, and 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 I got away with something either. “So I’m happy to take a 2-shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow.”Golf rules under the microscopeTampering with lies has been a hot topic throughout the golfing season this year – amid high-profile incidents involving Bryson DeChambeau and Wyndham Clark.Brooks Koepka recently lifted the lid on the ‘really bad’ rule breaches that have blighted the game recently.“Yeah, I’ve noticed a lot of guys do it, and guys get away with it more because you’re not on top of them,” he said.“So I might be over there hitting my shot, but you’re over here in the left rough and guys definitely do it, but it’s just how are you going to prove it?“There’s one I saw this year that was really bad.Bryson DeChambeau found himself embroiled in a high-profile rules scandal at The OpenGetty“I’m not going to name the player, he’s not playing in this [Skins Game], but it was pretty bad.“It was a chip. I saw it. It was really bad. He went for the backswing and you could see the whole ball.“I just ate that one because karma came and bit him on the next hole.“I think he made a double or a triple on the next hole so I was like what am I going to say? But it was interesting.“What am I going to do? I can’t prove it, and like at the same time, I understand guys have got to put the club down here, but if you keep putting the club down of course…”McIlroy will resume his tournament at two-under-par for Friday’s second round and trails leader Francesco Laporta by eight shots.He will tee off at 5:12am UK time on Friday alongside Casey Jarvis and Andy Sullivan.