Shane Lowry’s medal hopes look to have ended after a second successive round of level-par at Le Golf National in the Men’s Olympic Golf tournament.
After being twice interrupted due to weather on day one, prime scoring conditions greeted the early starters on day two but even though the Offaly man started better than he had in round one by making par on the first, a bogey on the par-5 third was effectively giving two back and though he’d respond with birdies at four and seven, another missed fairway on nine meant he couldn’t take on the par-5 in two and was forced to settle for par.
Accuracy off the tee is paramount at Le Golf National, and hitting just seven of 14 fairways meant that even though his approach play was excellent, getting inside 15 feet and having really good birdie opportunities was a big ask.
On the way home, he parred eight of the nine, dropping another on the 17th after finding another poor lie in the rough and being forced to layup short and attempt to get up-and-down for par from 65 yards.
With the later starters still on the course, he sits tied for 44th and looks set to be at least 12 or 13 shots back going into the final two rounds.
“Yeah, today was pretty similar to yesterday,” he said. “I never really got anything going. It was a bit of a boring round. Yeah, disappointing, but what can you do? I tried my hardest, but it wasn’t good enough. I gave myself a lot of chances but the putter was cold and the leaders are flying away with it so I’ve probably given myself too much to do.
“I’m playing for pride this weekend now, and I’ll go away this afternoon and reflect on the last couple of days and give it a good go at the weekend and try to get myself as far up the leaderboard as I can.”
Momentum is huge in golf, and after that opening bogey on day one, Lowry hasn’t really managed to get anything going and those 15 and 20 footers that are often the difference between good and average rounds for the pros just weren’t willing to drop.
“I needed that bit of momentum really,” he said. “You hole one or two and you’re off and running. I did hole a good one for par and another for birdie, but then I kept hitting it inside 20 feet all day and never really holed anything. I was burning the edge as well and the frustrating thing is that I felt like I was hitting good putts, I was just struggling to read the greens. But that’s golf, that’s just the way it is and unfortunately, it’s happened the last two days for me.”
A particular not of disappointment was his par-5 scoring, being one of just two players to make a bogey on the third and failing to birdie either of the other two traditional scoring holes at Le Golf National.
“It’s one thing you need to do around this course,” he said, “take care of the par-5s. I played them in one-over today, so if you play them the way you should, it’s a different day. But that’s golf. I’ve been playing par-5s really well all year, I’ve been putting very well recently and it’s just unfortunate that it’s deserted me over the last couple of days.”
Nevertheless, the support he’s received from the Irish fans continued to delight the man who carried the nation’s flag at the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony.
“Yeah, it was incredible,” Lowry gushed. “To see the Irish support – there were a lot of tri-colours out there – and it was a lot more than I expected. The support we’ve gotten over the last couple of days was great and I was on the ninth green when Rory was announced on the first tee and you could hear that roar. The Irish fans have been amazing, but then again, we do have the best fans in the world.”