'I didn't play my best golf': Shane Lowry makes underwhelming start to Open title defence

Shane Lowry signed for a middle-of-the-road one-over par 71, placing him seven behind afternoon leader Ooosthuizen.

Ireland's Shane Lowry tees off the 7th during day one of The Open at Royal St George's. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA 

Bogeys ultimately outnumbered birdies on Shane Lowry's day one scorecard at The Open, adding up to an underwhelming first defence of his title at Royal St George's.

Playing alongside the pin-peppering Louis Ooosthuizen - whose bagman is Howth's Colin Byrne - Lowry signed for a middle-of-the-road one-over par 71, placing him seven behind afternoon leader Ooosthuizen.

South African Oosthuizen, winner at St Andrews 11 years ago and in form following second place finishes at the US Open and USPGA, posted a blemish free 64 that included seven birdies.

His sweet swinging around the benign links made for painful viewing for Lowry and pre-tournament favourite Jon Rahm, the third member of the group, who finished up on one-over too.

Lowry waited two years to defend the title he won at Royal Portrush in 2019 and got off to a bruising start, pushing his opening drive right into a hellish lie and pulling his tee-shot left into more difficulties at the second, resulting in back to back bogeys.

He would steady himself with a tee-shot to the centre of the third green but a laser-like approach to the fourth, followed by a missed birdie attempt, summed up his morning and early afternoon. Portrush part two, this was certainly not.

Lowry repaired the early damage with back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th but finished in frustration, driving into the fairway bunker on the 18th, leading to a foul-mouth outburst, prompting apologies from the TV commentators to viewers at home.

Oosthuizen hit the same bunker on the 18th and fashioned a par. Lowry couldn't get up and down and walked away with a bogey, leaving him with work to do tomorrow.

"I'd say I played pretty average," said Lowry. "I didn't play my best golf. But then again, you're playing with Louis who is shooting six-under and playing great. It kind of makes you feel probably a little bit different.

"Disappointed to bogey the last. I think if I would have parred the last and shot level par, I would have been quite happy with myself going home this afternoon but I didn't. I got an unfortunate bounce and went into the bunker and made bogey.

But I battled hard. I was quite proud of myself. On to tomorrow.

With a 35.7% driving accuracy, Lowry headed for the range seeking improvement.

"I need to hit the ball in play better, especially with my driver," he conceded. "I didn't hit many fairways with my driver. I did hit quite a few 3-irons off the tees and I hit fairways but you need to drive the ball in play.

"Playing this course out of the rough is not the place to be. Yeah, I'm going to hit a few drives when I finish here and hopefully sort something out for tomorrow."

He could bump into big hitting Bryson DeChambeau on the range. The American's stats were even worse than Lowry's - just 29% of fairways hit.

"The driver sucks," said DeChambeau, before following up with a more scientific explanation for his errant play. "It's not a good (club) face for me and we're still trying to figure out how to make it good on the mis-hits. I'm living on the razor's edge like I've told people for a long time."

Just behind Oosthuizen is Jordan Spieth, the 2017 winner at Royal Birkdale enjoying a career relaunch this year and completing his opening round in just 65 blows, the same as US compatriot Brian Harman.

"You don't want to be playing catch-up in majors," said Harman, explaining his fast start. "I've definitely gotten burnt doing that a couple of times."

It's a sound ploy, if you're good enough to pull it off. Stewart Cink, the winner at Turnberry in 2009, Mackenzie Hughes and Dylan Fritelli may have had similar strategies, finishing up on four-under. Behind them, the eye is drawn to Justin Rose at three-under, Dustin Johnson on two-under and four-time major winner Brooks Koepka on minus one. As of now, they're all chasing Oosthuizen.

"Probably in my mind the perfect round I could have played," said Oosthuizen. "I didn't make many mistakes. When I had good opportunities for birdie, I made the putts. Just a very good, solid round."

Darren Clarke, winner in 2011 when The Open was last played at Sandwich, finished on one-over next to Lowry.

"My ball flighting was the best it's been probably in maybe this past month or so," said Clarke, who enjoyed the attention he got as a former champion at the venue. "It was wonderful. The reception I got on the first tee and the first fairway was great."