Shane Lowry and Seamus Power both endured frustrating opening rounds at the Canadian Open to post +2 and leave themselves with a lot of work to do to see weekend action, while several of the big guns find themselves in the mix.
Earlier in the day, Rory McIlroy caught fire on his final nine holes to shoot 66 and ended the day tied for sixth, and after an impressive run of form of late that included contending at the US PGA Championship and a Zurich Classic victory alongside McIlroy, Lowry was expected to go well again at Hamilton Country Club.
Despite a shaky enough start that saw him find fairway bunkers on both of his opening holes, a birdie at the fifth got Lowry into red figures, but that was short lived and disaster struck on the sixth when he four-putted from 44 feet for double bogey.
He’d get back to level-par for the day with a two on the par-3 eighth, but back-to-back bogeys on 10 and 11 saw him drop to +2 and he’d reel off seven pars to close out on that number.
Englishman David Skinns made eight birdies and no bogeys to take sole possession of the lead after day one, with Sam Burns and late entry Sean O’Hair a shot behind on -7, with Robert MacIntyre in solo fourth at -6.
A 42-year-old PGA Tour rookie, Skinns found himself in contention at the Cognizant Classic at PGA National back in February, and he feels he’s starting to become a little more comfortable at this level.
“No, definitely different,” he said when asked how this compared to the last time he found himself at the top of the leaderboard. “I think once you know your good golf can compete, it’s a lot easier to trust that and to have those feelings of comfort a little more than maybe otherwise if you hadn’t been there before and held up.
“Yeah, not particularly uncomfortable right now. Hopefully I can continue for the rest of the week.
“It’s hard to keep that sense of fun when things aren’t great and you’re missing every cut by one. It’s tough to keep that sense of fun. Still enjoy the challenge obviously, but yeah, when you’re seeing more results, it’s obviously a lot more fun, which it’s been a while since Houston, so I’m kind of — it’s been a few weeks. I’d love to be up there again and see what it feels like on Sunday.”
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