Putter woes give Lowry the blues

Shane Lowry paid a heavy price for a bout of anger at the Turkish Airlines Open yesterday.

The Offaly man learned moments before tee-off that his putter was unusable. Lowry had slammed shut the door of the scorer’s hut after Thursday’s opening round of 72 but, unbeknown to most, he later bent his putter shaft as well.

With no extra putters in his Maxx Royal clubhouse locker, it was left up to long-time caddy Dermot Bray to borrow a Ping putter from the pro shop.

However, Lowry described it as the “flattest putter in Turkey” and the Clara golfer recorded 34 putts on his way to 74th place in the elite 78-player field.

Four players – Frenchman Victory Dubuisson (65), South African Justin Walters (66), England’s Ian Poulter (66) and current European number one Henrik Stenson (68) – share the lead on 12-under par.

World number one Tiger Woods posted a nine under par 63 to retire a shot further back form the leaders as he looks to win a regular European Tour event for a first time in four years.

Lowry’s round was a sour mix of four birdies and seven bogeys including five dropped shots between the fifth and 10th holes.

“It was just 10 minutes before my tee time, I whipped my putter out of the bag and it was bent,” he said.

“It was my own fault as I did it yesterday after the round. The head was bent, broke, unusable.

“Dermot and I were on the putting green, nearly eight minutes before we had to tee off and I said to Dermot, I need a putter, and he went and found a putter.

“But then I just couldn’t get the ball in the hole and that was the story of my day really.”

Lowry played round with Scotland’s Paul Lawrie and Germany’s Marcel Siem. Both players promised him the use of one of their putters with Lawrie revealing he is travels with eight.

“Normally I would have a couple with me and I often even pick up another one during a tournament but then Paul Lawrie mentioned to me on about the 11th hole, which wasn’t much use to me then, that he had about eight of them in his locker,” said Lowry.

“Marcel also said he had one if I wanted it. The problem is my putter is really, really upright, and I putt cack-handed and this pro shop putter was probably the flattest putter they’ve got in Turkey.

“Honestly, I had to use the conventional grip for the back nine because I was trying to putt cack-handed and couldn’t get the ball on line. I had to use a conventional grip which I haven’t used since I was 18.

“But as I said, it is a lesson I’ve learned, and you can only laugh about it, it is not the end of the world.”

Pádraig Harrington is the leading Irish contender and he added a 70 to his opening round 68 for a share of 25th place on seven under par. He was delighted to have played the opening two rounds in the company of course designer Colin Montgomerie.

“Monty’s great and I always enjoy Monty’s company and no one likes to gets dogs abuse like Monty,” said Harrington smiling.

“We discussed a lot of things including various design aspects about the course.

“Every tree on the course, he’s hit it behind, but it’s good fun playing with him. He’s also quite good at being teased. He loves it. Nobody likes it more than Monty.”

Damien McGrane posted scores of 70 and 73 to be back one under par.