Shane Lowry toughs it out on a deceiving day at Royal Co Down

The Offaly man carved out a good day overall in testing conditions at the Irish Open

FOCUS: Shane Lowry stands on the eighth green with his caddie Darren Reynolds. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

The squall called just as Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntyre and Ryan Fox took to the first tee. It was a spitting, driving pest and it persuaded Lowry to take shelter by hunkering down next to a hoarding in front of the grandstand.

His face was set at half-grimace, half-smile.

They were already 20 minutes behind schedule. Four hours later and the Irishman was using another ad board as a prop, this time sitting down on the 16th tee in brilliant sunshine as they waited, again, for the field ahead to concertina back in their favour.

This was a day for patience. Even by golf’s standards.

Over five-and-a-half hours had passed since his scheduled starting slot by the time the 2018 Open champion got to share his thoughts on a one-over round that wouldn’t read like much on an ordinary week but hid layers of interest here.

Lowry has enjoyed what he describes himself as his best year on tour as a professional, but there were none-too-subtle warnings before this tournament that he wasn’t exactly expecting to claim a second Irish Open.

He used the word “jaded” at one point and, while the vagaries of links golf and the Irish weather might suggest odds tilted in the direction of the host players, he had signalled that the conditions would be a leveller.

His start was poor. Really poor. Three fives left him two-over in that first hour and the mood didn’t lift when sending a tee shot into a hillock of gorse 20 yards left of the pin at the par-three fifth. A long and frustrating day, and a short week, could have easily loomed.

His short game saved him. Not for the first time. The next shot, a deft chip studded into the bank at the edge of the green that killed the ball’s speed and left him with a four-foot par putt, was delicious. And it settled him to the task at hand.

He went around for one-under from there to the finish.

Lowry reacts to a put on 18

That save, he said, was the line in the sand for his day. The kickstart he needed. It was put to him that this was the kind of turnaround he might not have managed up to a year ago when his current run of great form got underway at the Irish Open in the K Club.

“Ah, maybe. A golf career over the amount of time I have been here is full of ups and downs. It’s a roller coaster and I’ve been talking about it with my team this week. When things are going well you need to ride the wave as well as you can. And when things aren’t you need to just battle it out as hard as you can. That’s what I’m trying to do.

“I’m trying to ride this decent wave of form and, at some stage in the next 10-15 years, or however long I play for, it is going to get hard. So just take the good stuff when you can. It’s easier when you’re having a good year to have a start like that and come back from it. It just is easier and I did that pretty well today. Maybe I am changing. Who knows?” 

The birdie on 18, just his second of the day, left him with an even better taste in his mouth. Dinner would be a more pleasant affair for it, he admitted. All in all, it was a good day, even if there were the usual morsels of regret to chew on.

The last hole aside, he hadn’t played the par-fives well. Some good work on 16 and 17 didn’t earn the red numbers he wanted either, but this was a hard course and a hard day on which to make birdies. Knowing that will let him sleep easy.

Squalls aside, most of his day was spent against a backdrop of the magnificent Mourne mountains and brilliant blue skies but he knew this pretty picture was a chimera the minute he looked out the window from the comfort and warmth of his house that morning.

"Very deceiving."

The whole course played with a cross wind that made it perilously difficult to work the ball close to the hole. Firm and fast greens played their part in damping scores down, too. All told, then, he was happy enough. With himself and with Royal Co. Down.

“It’s just a good test of golf,” he said. “It’s like the perfect test.”