Shane Lowry ready to kick on after storming by 62 gives him Irish Open lead

Shane Lowry acknowledges the crowd after finishing his round. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Shane Lowry once shot a 62 on the way to winning the Irish Open as an amateur. He destroyed Portrush with a 63 in the course of claiming the Open, and he clinched a crucial half-point for Team Europe in a Ryder Cup.

Friday here in West Clare wasn’t far off those peaks, apparently.

“It's definitely up there,” he said after a course record of 62. “It's one of the better rounds of golf that I've ever played. I feel like I'm in a good place. Through everything this year I feel like I've stayed as positive as I could. I feel like I'm ready to just kick on now.” 

Lowry spoke of a big 12 months to come, a year that will hopefully be capped by an appearance for Adare Manor’s hosting of the next Ryder Cup, but he is acutely aware that the job here and now, at Trump International Golf Links and Hotel, is nowhere close to done.

The Offaly man sits on eleven-under par, three shots clear at the top of the leaderboard at the halfway mark. That’s a great start and a solid platform. It does not guarantee him an easy ride through to another title on Sunday evening.

He knows it.

Lowry let slip the Cognizant Classic back in the spring. The Dubai Invitational got away from him a few weeks before that. Those experiences left their mark and he had played just once in the last seven weeks before this return home this week.

He spoke of feeling refreshed earlier this week. This is bordering on revival.

And we have seen him close these out before. That Irish Open back in 2009. The Sunday freewheel to the Open seven years ago. The man who withstood the most intense of pressure in sinking that putt for his continent at Bethpage last year.

None of this tournament’s biggest stars are snapping at his heels. The USA’s Patrick Reed is the closest, seven shots back, but there are no shortage of solid tour pros on his shoulder who will feel capable of pushing him all the way over the next 36 holes.

Closest to the summit at the close of play on Friday evening was the trio of Haotong Li, Jacob Skov Olesen and Niklas Norgaard. All of them lurk just three shots behind, on eight-under, after superb rounds of 63, 64 and 64 respectively.

Joaquin Niemann is one of five players on five-under, Tom McKibbin another after a second nest round in as many days.

Niemann has won twice on the PGA Tour, once on the DP World Tour and nine times on LIV. Li has four DP victories, Ewen Ferguson three. Others, like Olesen, have yet to win at that level but then every winner had to break their duck sometime.

And two days is a long time in golf.

Shane Lowry waves to the crowd after finishing his round on the 18th green. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho

Rory McIlroy hasn’t given up all hope of retaining the title he won in such spectacular fashion last year, but he lies ten shots off his good friend after a second consecutive 69. As in the first round, it was a cold putter that frustrated the reigning Masters champion.

“I just didn't have it on the greens. I really struggled to read them. It's hard whenever you struggle to read them, and then when you do get over the ball you're trying to trust what you're seeing, but everything else that you have seen hasn't went the way you thought.

“So it's hard to put a committed stroke on it. So, yeah, it's been a tough one on the greens the last two days. But tee to green I've actually been pretty happy with how everything else is. I just need to try to hole a few more over the weekend.” 

As for the rest of the Irish, Liam Nolan survived the one-over cut with a second-round 68 but Max Kennedy, Seamus Power, Thomas Higgins, Padraig Harrington and Mark Power all miss out on the weekend.

As for the front runner, the criticism is that he hasn’t won enough for a man of his talent. His last victory was the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with Rory McIlroy in April of 2024. Getting the job done here would be of immeasurable worth to him.

Far more than the €880,000 winner’s cheque.

Lowry is one of those players who can be irresistible when he finds a groove. He shot nine birdies on Friday and just the one bogey, at the 13th. He came off 18 delighted with how he had combined aggression with patience on a gloriously sunny and calmer day.

“A 9.5 out of ten,” he said when asked to rate his performance.

The turn was reached in just 30 shots and thoughts of a possible 59 flitted through his mind given par for the back nine here is just 34. It didn’t happen, but he was thrilled with how he knuckled down after that dropped shot and brought it home.

The job details will change again on Saturday with a predicted return to some of the wetter and wilder conditions that held sway here on the first day, and our leader knows that this is a variable that can’t be overestimated.

“If there's a bit of rough weather tomorrow, no-one's going to be going out shooting 62. So it'll be up to me to … try and keep myself up there and give myself a chance on Sunday afternoon.

“I know if I'm up there on Sunday afternoon, I know there's a crowd that'll be behind me and they'll be that 15th club in the bag hopefully rolling me home.”