Shane Lowry suffers water torture with bizarre double bogey at PGA Championship

Shane Lowry shot an impressive 68 on Thursday but struggled on the opening nine holes of his second round at the PGA Championship at Aronimink 

The 17th, the eighth hole of his second round at the PGA Championship, was one to forget for Shane Lowry. Pic: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

As Aronimink Golf Club bared its teeth in ferocious fashion on Friday morning, Shane Lowry was bitten harder than most.

The Offaly man, who’d fired a hugely impressive opening 68 at the PGA Championship, dropped two shots early in his round but then suffered a horror before the turn on the par-3 17th, his eighth hole of the day.

Firing a iron from the tee on the downhill 229-yard hole, Lowry didn’t quite shank it but thinned a dying duck of a shot which skipped along the pond in front of the green before sinking. Nothing looked right about the swing as Lowry flailed his hands right after contact. He and caddie Darren Reynolds looked bemused at the outcome but on a morning when the year’s second major was playing a lot more like an Open Championship, players were left perplexed across the course.

Shane Lowry's only one major ahead of me, other than that our golf games are identicalpic.twitter.com/w8zyNg99TW

— Jay Busbee (@jaybusbee) May 15, 2026

Lowry pitched his third from the drop zone but put too much spin on it and saw it zip back to 26 feet below the hole. He two-putted for double bogey and suddenly found himself 2-over approaching the turn.

Lowry’s earlier bogeys came as the result of a pair of three-putts. The first on the 10th, his opening hole, and again on the short 14th as the par-3s at Aronimink proved to be his kryptonite over the first day and a half.

The 2019 Open champion could perhaps take solace that he wasn’t the only one suffering. His double-bogey woes came hot on the heels of similar skewed scores from Ryder Cup teammates Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick as the greens gave almost everyone huge troubles. World No.1 and overnight co-leader Scottie Scheffler looked very mortal as he carded three bogeys in his opening four holes to drop back to even par.