Shane Lowry was left to rue a string of missed putts as he battled his way to an opening round of 72 and a level-par tally on day one of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
With a top 10, two further top 20s and a T35 in his last four starts at the Pete Dye venue in Florida, and coming off the back of another strong showing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, the Offalyman was highly fancied to go close to landing that elusive individual PGA Tour victory this week, and started in fine fettle by giving himself a 10-foot look for birdie on the 10th after an excellent approach from 184 yards.
But the putt that followed didn’t match the quality of the iron-shot and proved to be an omen for what was to come as he missed a three-and-a-half footer for par on the 11th and another birdie putt from inside 10 feet on 14.
He finally opened his birdie account on the par-5 16th after two mighty blows found the back edge and he safely navigated the famous 17th to remain at level par, but an uncharateristically poor short iron on the 18th found the water and resulted in another bogey and a one-over first nine holes.
We then saw the Jekyll and Hyde of Lowry’s putting game early on the front side as he rolled in a 10-footer for birdie on two and a 17-footer for another on four, but in between, a sloppy three-putt from 35 feet lead to a third bogey.
From there, he’d par his way home, but birdie chances came and went on six and seven – the latter including a missed four-footer – and he cut a frustrated figure as he headed for the scoring tent, six shots off the early lead and ranking second in Strokes-Gained-Off-The-Tee but 70th of the 72 early starters in Strokes-Gained-Putting.
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