Lowry hits form with old favourite

Shane Lowry dusted off an old putter, regained his touch around the greens and shot his lowest score of the year to put himself within two shots of Thomas Bjorn’s first-round lead at the 60th BMW PGA Championship yesterday.

Denmark’s Bjorn, the current Race To Dubai leader, had shot a 10-under-par 62, a new course record since changes introduced in 2010 turned it from a par 71 to a par 72, and he looked to be running away with the European Tour’s flagship tournament on the first morning.

Lowry, though, had other ideas. A terrible start to his campaign, with just two cuts made in eight starts, had given way to optimism with a top-15 finish at the Spanish Open last week, and yesterday the two-time European Tour winner found his missing spark in a championship he finished tied for fifth in three years ago and tied for 12th last year.