Shane Lowry recovered from a poor start to ensure his hopes of winning the Amgen Irish Open as an amateur and a professional remain alive after he ground out an opening round of 72 to lie six shots off the pace at Royal County Down.
Lowry, who won the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in 2019 on his last visit to the north of Ireland, carded just two birdies on the 9th and 18th but his closing gain has given him some momentum heading into Friday morning which promises kinder conditions than what he faced this afternoon.
“You look at the scoring out there, there’s nobody shooting really low the, like 3-under, the best score. Even in major championships, people always shoot good scores on the first day. So you can tell how hard of a test that is,” said Lowry who hit two stunning shots into the par-5 18th green to set up a routine two-putt birdie.
Scoring remained high for most of the day aside from a late burst from leader Todd Clements and Finland’s Sami Valimaki as the wind dropped and Lowry doesn’t believe he needs to chase birdies to climb the leaderboard on Friday as he channels a major championship mindset.
“It is (like a major out there). Like pars are good. You know, and that’s the thing. I get off to the start I did and you have to tell yourself that if you par the next five, if you start like that, par the next five or six holes, you’re kind of back okay you’ll be fine.
“You just need to be patient out there and you need to miss it in the right spot. I felt like the first couple of holes I missed them in wrong spots and you get penalized for that.
“But look, one over is not the end of the world, and we go on and give it a go in the morning.”
The Offaly man looked like he was going to be facing a challenge to make the cut after back-to-back bogeys on the 2nd and 3rd left him facing a third successive dropped shot. But a heroic chip on the par-3 4th saw him save par and kickstart his round.
“You have no choice but to keep going. Look, you know going out there today, you’re probably going to make some bogeys. You’re probably going to be behind the black ball a couple of times and you just have to get on with it.
“The chip shot on 4 was pretty good. It was kind of, you know, it was one much those that it puts you in a good mood nearly after hitting that chip shot.”
A stroke of bad luck on the par-5 12th cost him a shot but the 37-year-old was pleased with how he managed to stay in the tournament.
“It was pretty bad, starting 5, 5, 5, wasn’t ideal. Then where I hit it on the fourth obviously wasn’t ideal either. That up-and-down was like it kind of gave me a bit of a kick start that I needed and a bit of a pep in my step.
“I felt like from there I was pretty good, other than the 12th hole which, you know, I was a little bit unfortunate as well on 12 with my tee shot, even my second shot. But you’ve got to take it on the chin and move on. Nice to birdie the last. That will make dinner taste a little nicer.”
Last year’s Irish Open saw Lowry finish third and it opened the gates for a superbly consistent run of form that has seen him miss just two cuts since and develop an ability to bounce back when the chips are down in a round of golf.
“I’ve been talking about it with team this week how when things are going well, you need to just ride the wave as well as you can and when things aren’t great, you just paddle out as hard as you can. That’s what I’m trying to do, ride this wave of decent form and at some stage in the next ten, 15 years, however more long I play for, it’s going to get hard. You need to take the good stuff when you can.
“It’s easier when you’re having a good year to get off to a start like that and come back from. It just is easier. I did that pretty well today. Maybe I am changing, who knows.
“I played pretty good golf today. I think when I sit down and have my dinner tonight and think about, it I’ll be pretty happy with how I played.”