Lowry thrilled with opening 66 but focused on business still to come

Ireland's Shane Lowry on the 18th green during day one of The Open at Royal Troon. Picture: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.

Shane Lowry swore he would be happy with just one more Open title earlier this week. Wanting it is one thing, the 2019 champion went out and put a sizeable deposit on a second Claret Jug with a superb opening round of 66 at Royal Troon on Thursday.

The numbers don’t lie but they don’t do it full justice either. Carding a bogey-free round on a day buffeted by such capricious, if not exactly howling, winds was an achievement in itself. Only two others managed it: Justin Rose and Daniel Brown.

Brown, an Englishman playing his first major, wrested the lead from Lowry shortly after 9.30pm with a sixth birdie and a round of 65, and it means that the man from Offaly has still to lay claim to a lead after the opening round of a major.

That’s small enough potatoes for now.

This was the best ever first-up round at any of the 46 majors the 37-year old has played to date. It betters, among others, the 67 at Royal Portrush and a pair of 68s at St Andrews in 2010 and Royal Liverpool a decade ago.

A great day’s work.

“I'm pretty happy, but it's only one day. We've got three more days. I kept telling myself that out there because for some reason I felt like the crowd were getting very excited out there. It was late in the afternoon. A few pints of Tennents out there, I'd say.

“They were quite excitable out there and it felt more like the weekend. I just kept on telling myself there's a lot more to do and there's a few days left, so I just kind of stayed in my lane and hit some good shots, and I was pretty happy with how I handled myself.” The 2019 Open champion was wayward off the tee through his opening three holes but he cleaned up every time for par. His first birdie arrived at the par-five 4th, two more followed at the par-four 7th and the Postage Stamp par-three right after it.

Three-under at the turn, he managed to avoid the sort of catastrophes that brought earlier leaders like Younghan Song and Matt Wallace back to the field. A fourth birdie at the notorious 11th took him into a sole lead.

If there were chances that slid by for more birdies after that then there had been putts made to save the odd par on the front nine too. He finished on a high with a textbook 18th hole completed by a five-foot putt for birdie.

Lowry has put a damn good year together up to now, his “best on the PGA Tour” no less, but there were doubts lurking in the corners of his mind here after taking a few weeks off and playing instead around Hog’s Head back home with some pals.

If those four days in Kerry served him well then so did a jaunt here the week before when he went about familiarizing himself with Troon’s Old Course and got to play in winds that were a replica of the conditions that reigned here.

That ground work didn’t end until the hours approaching his first tee at 2.59pm here which he approached having spent a chunk of his morning watching so many others come to grips with the tricky conditions.

Sometimes you make your own luck.

Whatever about his play in the air, his work on the greens through the opening nine holes was especially hot. Lowry gained 4.73 strokes against the field with his putting on the day. That was better than everyone else at Royal Troon across over 15 hours of golf.

That he finished in calmer conditions than those which caused people such difficulties earlier in the day can’t be overlooked, of course. Only 16 of the 157 players doing the rounds finished under-par. That’s, again, a mark of how good Lowry played.

“Yeah, look, it's good, it's great, but there's three rounds left. If I don't play well the next three rounds, it doesn't matter what I shot today. I'm fully aware that I have a job to do over the next three days.

“Look, I'd give anything to win this tournament again. I'd give anything to give myself a chance to win this tournament again, and that's why I'm here this week. This is obviously a great start to do that.” The course proved a puzzle to players who had not faced the southerly winds during practice earlier in the week (but knew they were coming). The collateral damage it caused was spectacular with a whole host of big names posting numbers of rare heights.

Former champion Cam Smith signed for a nine-over 80, Rickie Fowler needed only one shot fewer. Rory McIlroy posted a seven-over 78, Sahith Theegala a 77 with Tommy Fleetwood, Bryson DeChambeau and Max Homa among those left sitting with 76s.

Lowry was also the only one of six Irish players to come in under-par. Padraig Harrington was next in line with a gritty 72 for a one-over score having bogeyed his opening two holes and navigated his way around the back nine in one-under.

Tom McKibben had been first man up for the green contingent, his disappointment with a two-over par finish surely diluted to some extent by the numbers being added up by the rest of the field later in the day.

Darren Clarke filed a six-over 77 and Liam Nolan was last in with a 78. Rory McIlroy, as usual among the favourites for one of the game’s biggest prizes, carded an earlier 78 which he described as one of his worst performances of the year.