Lowry Has Irish Open in Sights

Shane Lowry R2 TPC Sawgrass - Getty Images

Shane Lowry is hoping his brilliant opening round of 65 at the Players’ Championship on Thursday can set his season alight and inspire a big performance at next week's Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

The Irishman saw his fortunes on the greens take a dramatic upturn following a tip from Graeme McDowell at Sawgrass last week, and he hopes that brilliant seven-under-par first round is the catalyst for an unforgettable summer.

A strong showing in America this weekend would see Lowry, who won the 2009 Irish Open as an amateur, arrive at The K Club full of confidence and ready to produce his best in front of an adoring home crowd .

Lowry has missed only two cuts from ten appearances in 2016, with his best performance so far coming at the Phoenix Open, where he tied sixth in February.

An unforgettable hole in one on the par-three 16th in the final round of the Masters left Lowry an Augusta memory to savour, but he left the first Major of the season knowing he should have finished higher than 39th place.

With a huge prize fund of €4m, a victory in Kildare would reignite Lowry’s Ryder Cup dream and send him into the most important stretch of golf in his career with the confidence and swagger that saw him claim his first World Golf Championship title last summer.

“Next week's a massive week for me,” said the Offaly man. "I feel like I have the game to contend in Majors and the biggest tournaments in the world."

“I'd love nothing more than to go back home next week and win the Irish Open. I am very much a confidence player, and rounds like I had on Thursday make me believe more and more that I am close to getting some big results.

“I need to kick on and start winning and getting into contention. I want to be playing well this summer because there are so many big events and I feel like I have the game to contend in Majors and the biggest tournaments in the world.

"I also want to secure my place on the Irish Olympic team and put myself in contention for the Ryder Cup team.”

“The Irish Open is a bit of a crazy week for the Irish players because there is so much going on during the week, but you have got to embrace it and try to enjoy it.

"I definitely thrive on playing in front of a home crowd, and the Irish fans are always brilliant with the home players. The support I get at home is unbelievable.”

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McIlroy Overcomes Sawgrass with 64

McIlroy at Sawgrass R2 - Getty Images

Rory McIlroy’s second round in The Players produced a career-best 64, to move to eight-under-par at TPC Sawgrass, and some satisfaction over course that has over the years has caused the Holywood golfer grief.

McIlroy wasted no time in making his move, an opening with a 25 foot for birdie on the 10th, his first of the day, which was followed by four birdies in a row. There was a six-footer on 15 for his fifth birdie and then rolled in a 55 footer from off the green for eagle on the Par 5 16th.

That run on his front nine enabled him to match the day-old record of 29 strokes set by Shane Lowry on Thursday. “The back nine could not have played any easier,” admitted McIlroy.

However the fireworks of that stretch didn’t continue into the homeward run,  with further birdies at the second and seventh only to come unstuck on the Par 5 ninth where McIlroy opted to lay-up with his approach. 

Having left 270 yards to the front of the green he played a poor third shot into the grassy bank of a greenside bunker and ran up a bogey six.

“I guess I have got it in my head that any time I have went for the green it hasn’t really worked out that well for me. With hindsight, that pin being on the left side, (hitting it) anywhere on the right and I would have had a chance to get up and down. But I thought if I get it within 100 yards and take my chance from there. I didn’t hit a great third shot. Maybe if I had it back, I would go for the green,” explained McIlroy, who had eyed a possible 62 if he’d managed to birdie his closing hole.

A round of 64 moved him into contention and into a position far removed from his early years in playing at Sawgrass when he missed the cut in his first three appearances in the tournament. 

“I hit a lot of quality shots, hopefully I’ll continue to see that over the weekend.”

McIlroy wasn’t the only one to take advantage of benign conditions and soft greens, as Colt Knost hit all 18 greens in regulation and shot a course record equalling 63 to leapfrog through the field to lie on 135 at the halfway stage.

Knost even had a chance to set a new course record, but three-putted the 18th for a bogey. “I was fine over the first putt. I was trying to two-putt it, which is probably the problem instead of trying to make it. I was a little nervous over the second one. I knew what it was for. But I didn’t hit a bad putt, I hit it on the left lip and it just stayed there and lipped out.”

Graeme McDowell fired a second round 70 for 142 to at least survive the midway cut.

Pádraig Harrington’s 74 means he missed back-to-back cuts after also failing to survive at the Wells Fargo last week.

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Lowry 29 Sets Sawgrass Record

Lowry at TPC Sawgrass - Getty Images

Shane Lowry fired a record back nine of 29 strokes at TPC Sawgrass for an opening round of  65, seven under par, at The Players Championship on Thursday.

It was slightly overshadowed though by Jason Day’s course record-equalling 63 which was made up of nine birdies and nine pars and enabled the Australian to grab the lead.

 

Day’s error-free round gave him a two-stroke lead over Lowry,Justin Rose and American trio of Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele and Bill Haas on a day of little wind and fine scoring.

Jordan Spieth – playing for the first time since his Masters collapse last month – suffered a double-bogey seven on the Par 5 ninth, his finishing hole. Asked what had happened, he quipped: “ I hit it seven times.” He signed for a level par 72.

Rory McIlroy was nine shots off the lead after a 72 containing two birdies and two bogeys, the 27-year-old finishing alongside Rickie Fowler after the defending champion carded a double bogey on the 18th. 

Graeme McDowell and Pádraig Harrington, both out in the tougher afternoon conditions, shot level-par 72s.

Day’s 63 was 18 strokes better than his second-round 81 a year ago when he missed the cut for a third time in five appearances on the Pete Dye design.

“I was under par going through my first nine but there were guys at seven under when I was five under and I’m there going, ‘Okay, I’ve got to keep pushing. When you see someone up the leaderboard distancing themselves away from the field, you’ve got to do something to catch up to them,” said Day.

Lowry, bouncing back from a missed cut in the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow last week, turned in level par before lighting a fuse that ignited his play on the homeward stretch.

Lowry’s run of birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie from the 10th was sensational and far removed from the frustration he endured in his final practice round on Wednesday. The Offalyman was so at odds with his game and his swing that it took some calming words on the phone in “an emergency call” with his coach Neil Manchip and a piece of live advice from Graeme McDowell to rectify matters.

Of that “meltdown,” Lowry recounted: “I was losing the head (in practice). I was like almost thinking, ‘what’s the point being here?’, because I felt like I was playing poorly and I was struggling on the greens.”

He added: “I’m very much a confidence player, highs and lows are a bit too much at times. But, yeah, when I get it going I’m normally quite good. Sometimes I can get very hard on myself and beat myself up. So, it’s just trying to get somewhere in between.”

A word in the ear from McDowell – who was playing the practice round with him – provided a light bulb moment. “I got a little tip from G-Mac (in practice) and it seemed to help me. Hopefully I can carry that forward and do all the right things come the weekend. I was just getting over the ball a little too close and he just told me to move it an inch away from where it was and see how it feels. For some reason, it just felt easier to see my lines.”

There was no evidence of Lowry’s transformation on a front nine that saw him merely treading water with one birdie and a bogey to turn in level par. On the back nine, however, he opened his shoulders, found his targets and, most critically of all, got the putter working as he rolled in birdie putts and, on occasion, par saves to leapfrog through the field.

On the 10th, Lowry rolled in a 35-footer for birdie that gave him a pep in his step. From there, he moved into a zone. He eagled the 11th, rolled in a five-footer for birdie on the 12th and another from six feet on the 13th.

On the Par 5 16th, Lowry putted from off the front of the green for a tap-in birdie and, after failing to convert a birdie chance from 10 feet on the famed island hole, where he’d hit “a hard sand wedge from 124 yards” off the tee, he then ripped a 332 yards drive down the 18th and put his sand wedge approach to 15 feet and sank the birdie putt to finish in style.

On being told he was the first player to shoot 29 on the back nine, Lowry remarked: “It’s probably as good a golf course as we play all year. It’s a proper test of golf. And to go out and do it on that nine was nice.”

His score was all the more remarkable for the low expectations he carried into the tournament, missing the cut at Quail Hollow and struggling in practice on Wednesday.

“I kind of was coming out thinking, ‘if I can just get four rounds in here it will be a big help for (the Irish Open) next week. So, I’m on my way to getting four rounds in anyhow . . . next week’s a massive week for me. This week is big as well, but I’d love nothing more than to go back next week and win a tournament.”

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