Lowry stuck in neutral as he shoots opening 70 in humid Atlanta

FEELING THE HEAT: Shane Lowry  on the second green during the first round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. Picture: Kevin C Cox/Getty Images

This month upcoming could change Shane Lowry’s outlook and appreciation for 2025 significantly.

A $40m purse and the FedEx Cup title is at stake this week in the Tour Championship at East Lake. The Amgen Irish Open at The K Club and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth – two events Lowry has experience of winning – are on deck before the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

Any one of these weeks could change the trajectory of Lowry’s season and rewrite the narrative. The key will be turning around form that has let him down of late.

That didn’t happen Thursday at East Lake, where Lowry shot an even-par 70 to put himself near the bottom of the 30-man field on a day when soft conditions led to some low scoring. It will leave him with some catching up to do, though he’s closer to the lead than he ever was a year ago in his Tour Championship debut when he began the event already seven behind top-ranked Scheffler in the starting strokes system and ultimately finished ninth 14 shots behind.

This time he’ll be at least six behind starting Friday with fewer rounds to catch up. Collin Morikawa, who shot the lowest 72-hole score on the redesigned East Lake course last year, and 2021 FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay finished with 6-under 64s on Thursday. Russell Henley reached 7-under with two holes left to play including the par-5 finisher.

“I’m for it this way now and I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do but last year I knew my challenge as well, I had shots to make up,” Morikawa said. “Different mindset that way, so it’s nice that I would have started this week if I was, whatever, 1-under, 2-under, I still would have been pretty far behind.

“I’ve put together quality rounds out here, and that’s what’s been nice. It’s just now doing it on the correct four rounds in the correct year.” 

Justin Thomas, the 2017 FedEx Cup winner, went out in 29 and push to the top of the leaderboard at 7-under before making a hash of the 16th hole for double.

Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre extended his hot hand after his runner-up last week, stringing together birdies on 11, 12 and 13 to climb to 6-under before making bogey on 16.

Rory McIlroy went eagle-birdie on holes 6 and 7 to catch up with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler at the turn and both reached 4-under through 12 holes.

Lowry’s 2025 season to date has been hard to define. At times he’s been close to spectacular, finishing second to McIlroy at Pebble Beach and contending until the last hole in the signature event at Philadelphia Cricket Club. He even came close to putting himself in the final pairing with McIlroy again at the Masters. Those performances as well as a top-10 at Bay Hill pushed him to a career-best No. 10 in the world.

Too often, however, Lowry’s season has been frustrating and often disappointing. He let that Philadelphia opportunity slip away with untimely errors down the stretch, collapsed with a Sunday 81 at Augusta, openly displayed irritation with rulings and himself at the other three majors. His inconsistency since reaching 10th in the OWGR before the PGA has let his ranking steadily slip back to No. 21. As high as eighth in the FedEx Cup standings in the spring, he hung on to enter the Tour Championship 24th of 30.

With an equal chance as anyone else in the field, Lowry was stuck in idle in Thursday’s first round, making bogey on the first and never really generating any momentum. He made two birdies and two bogeys and couldn’t capitalize on some mid-range birdie putts he faced.

McIlroy started slow himself with six consecutive pars to fall a couple behind playing partner Scheffler. But his day ignited with a 30-foot eagle putt on 6 followed by a 7-footer on 7 for birdie.