'I didn’t think we were going to get finished' – Lowry leads the Irish charge
CLARE TO HERE: Ireland’s Shane Lowry plays out of the rough on the 18th. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady
Satisfied. Shane Lowry leads the Irish charge in Doonbeg as he shot a superb three-under-par 67 to be within two shots of Joaquin Niemann at the top of the leaderboard.
A winner of this title as an amateur in 2009, Lowry persevered through challenging conditions and one of the longest rounds of his career to finish with five birdies.
“It is physically quite… When you are standing around for, I think we talked about this on the eighth tee, me and Jon (Rahm) and Patrick (Reed), we hit two full shots in an hour out there, the drive on six and the tee shot on seven in a full hour. So that is hard to do, especially when you're nearly 40!
“You know, you just have to keep going. It is the same for everyone. There is no point whining about it. You just have to get on with it and then probably you'll do a good job of it.”
The 39-year-old recovered from a bogey on the ninth to play the back nine superbly, including a terrific birdie on the 14th par-3. Lowry was one of the last groups to get finished on Thursday with play eventually finishing just before 8.00pm due to darkness.
“I think I did a good job,” he explained.
“I didn’t think we were going to get finished. I just assumed we were going to get 15, 16 holes and then we were going to come back and finish tomorrow. Outside of Dunhill and Pebble Beach, it is a long round of golf.”
This is who he is. That point has been made by himself and his fellow pros in the last few days; Lowry is an immensely talented golfer. Yes, it has been a frustrating season. He probably overplayed in the middle of the season, but he arrived here refreshed after a break.
“Look, you want to come down and get off to a good start in the home tournament. I build weeks like this up a lot in my head, especially; I feel like I did a good job of going after it today. That is what I did.
“I went out and I tried to just be somewhat aggressive, but be myself and allow myself to hit the shots, allow myself to make mistakes and allow myself to just be Shane Lowry and I feel like I did a good job of that.”
Like his old self? Not quite. This version is better. His goal now is to build on a good start when he tees off at 9.40am on Friday morning.
“I think the new Shane Lowry is better than the old Shane Lowry, but I think you need to play with a lot of feel, there is a lot of art to a game of golf like that. There's a lot of visualisation.
“I feel like I allowed myself to do that today. It is easy to get out there and try and play by the numbers. You feel like the wind is playing 30 yards or 25 yards.
“You know, at the end of the day, I said it's like, if it is not a 5-iron or it is not a 7, it is a 6. Just try and hit the best shot you can.”
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