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Shane Lowry signed for a quadruple bogey eight on his 17th hole to cap a miserable opening round in the Puerto Rico Open on Thursday. A five -over par 77 left him 12 shots behind the leaders, Argentinian Andrew Romero and Australian Cameron Percy .
Portuguese Open winner Lowry will have been especially disappointed after his stated aim of getting into as many US Tour events as possible between now and and the end of May. A top-10 finish this week would get him into next week’s Tampa Bay Championship.
As one of nine top-100 ranked players in this week’s field, he would have rated his chances highly but bogeys at the fourth, eighth, ninth and 14th had left him struggling before the disaster at the 17th.
Americans Blayne Barber and John Curran were a shot off the lead at the Trump International club in Rio Grande, with Romero’s fellow Argentinian Angel Cabrero a further shot back, alongside American Bill Lunde and Steve LeBrun.
Romero made two late bogeys to grab a share of the lead with Cameron Percy at 7-under 65.
The Argentine golfer who won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2008, had an eagle and seven birdies on his first 15 holes to reach 9 under, then fell back with the bogeys on the par-4 seventh and par-5 eighth.
Percy, from Australia, had nine birdies and two bogeys on the Trump International course.
Blayne Barber, who made headlines for disqualifying himself after the first stage of q-school in 2012, and Jon Curran were a stroke back, and two-time major champion Angel Cabrera opened with a 67 to match Bill Lunde, Steve LeBrun, Brad Fritsch, Justin Bolli, Morgan Hoffmann, Brian Stuard, Peter Uihlein and Rafael Campo. Patrick Cantlay, the 20-year-old former UCLA player coming off a Web.com Tour victory last week in Colombia, shot 70.
South Korea's Si Woo Kim withdrew after a 79. The 17-year-old Kim, playing on a sponsor exemption, earned a TOUR card at q-school, but won't become a full TOUR member until he turns 18 in June. He missed the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in his only other TOUR start of the year.
Romero has missed the cuts in four of his five starts this year, shooting 75-67 last week in the The Honda Classic.
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