Shane Lowry doing it his own way as he leads the Open pack

Ireland's Shane Lowry reacts to a near birdie on the 17th during day two of The Open at Royal Troon. Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire.

Links golf at its best is a finger that never stops poking your ribs. On days like Friday on Scotland’s west coast it can feel like an ensuite tap dripping while you try to sleep. Most of us tend to snap. Shane Lowry could have snapped.

Lowry had done almost everything right until he stood over his second shot at the fiendish 11th. He had dropped just one shot in 28 holes, at the par-three 5th under an hour earlier, when his tee shot snagged a greenside bunker.

He had profited from a draw that had twice sent him out onto the Old Course at times when the elements were less mischievous. No doubt about that. Eight of the top ten after two rounds teed off on Friday before 10am here. That’s no coincidence.

Justin Rose, who started at lunchtime, was a one-man chasing pack through much of the afternoon. The difficulties involved through the day were such that there were less players under par by close of play than when it began.

Still, none of the playing conditions here have been anything like easy. Lowry had thumbed his nose at all of them, fashioned his golf around them, but a time had to come when the gods would test him. Or a photographer.

One camera moving at the wrong time was all it took. Lowry saw it in the corner of his eye, lost his focus and sent his approach from the rough flying sideways, over the fairway and the gallery opposite and into the gorse.

What followed would have tested Job himself. His original was lost and found, there were rulings debated and confirmed, a penalty drop and, eventually, a blind chip of about 125 yards to the front of the green on the way to a double bogey.

The whole episode took over 20 minutes but, while he let the snapper have it with some choice words, there was a noticeable calming of what could have been boiling waters by the time he hit what turned out to be an unnecessary provisional.

Ireland's Shane Lowry searches for his ball in the heavy rough on the 11th during day two of The Open at Royal Troon. Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire.

Lowry closed his eyes, cranked his neck skywards and uttered a few silent words. This is what we call a reset these days. Sports psychologists preach this stuff so that players have roadmaps to follow when the temptation is to snap a club over the knee.

Is that what he was doing? Was he leaning on this modern method?

“No. Sometimes you are in a frame of mind that it works better for… You know, you get on with it better [sometimes] than other times. This week in my head feels like that, where I think I'm ready to take what comes, take what's given to me out there.

“Almost ready for – I don’t want to be negative - anything that's thrown at me, I feel like I'm ready to take it on the chin and move on. I just have to deal with it and try and make the best of it and see where it leads me.” This is part of what draws us to him.

A world-class sportsman, Lowry has managed to reach that high plateau by climbing without some of the safety harnesses packed by so many others. It leaves him susceptible to spectacular falls but it is rarely short of required viewing.

And there’s more to come.

Offaly’s finest sits two shots clear at the halfway stage on seven-under with Rose his closest pursuer after his superb three-under 68. Of the ten players better than even par, five of them have won majors. Other ‘names’ lie a couple of shots further back.

Lowry is comfortable in that company.

He left Carnoustie in tears after missing the cut at the 2018 Open and reflected later about how the game wasn’t his “friend” at the time. He was visited by self-doubt the Sunday morning at Portrush before winning in 2019.

Letting the 2016 US Open slip on the back of a four-shot, 54-hole lead took an age time to process. It’s only a matter of weeks since he was left “close to tears” after carding an 85 at the Memorial. It’s a cruel game.

He said once that his scorecard wouldn’t matter to his daughter Iris - this was before her sister Ivy was born – and that perspective held on a more mundane level after his testing chapter at the ‘Railway’ 11th.

He made for the 12th tee happy enough to have signed for a six, then lashed driver and a four-iron into the teeth of the wind. They were his two best shots of the week under the circumstances and utterly key to his round.

Birdies at 16 and 18 left him on seven-under and in the outright lead, the second of those prompting yet another fist pump from a player who has managed to balance that sort of raw emotion with a calm when the occasion requires it.

“Like, I can get a bit down on myself and a bit hot-headed at times, but I really feel like that's why I've had the career I've had. I've spoken to people, my coach and my team about this at times. If I go out there and try to be somebody I'm not, you're just not going to be successful.” 

He approaches the weekend with the field at his back and with a proven ability to handle the pressure at the summit. He did it in Portrush and as far back as that Irish Open win as an amateur 15 years ago. Are you a good front-runner, he was asked?

“I wouldn't say I'm a good runner,” he laughed.

More of a fighter.