Shane Lowry was left slightly disappointed that he couldn’t fully sink his teeth into a benign Royal County Down on Friday morning but he is in a position to challenge for a second Amgen Irish Open title this weekend.
Lowry was feeling a little sour after a closing bogey from left of the 9th green dropped him back to one-under and four off the lead after a 69 but after a slow start to his round he rallied with three birdies in a row on 18, 1 and 2 to move from the cut line and into the mix.
“You’re not going to get that golf course any easier than we did this morning. Probably should have done better couldn’t quite get close enough to hole putts but felt like I was in control and pleased with how I played,” said Lowry who couldn’t take advantage of a calm first nine with a birdie on 12 and bogey on 16.
“I hit some great shots. Drove the ball brilliantly. Gave myself a few chances and then yeah, the last was smelly. Obviously 16 was a big kick in the you know what. To hit that drive and then come off with 5 was pretty disappointing. Felt like I got myself going pretty well after that.”
The fortunate thing about starting his second round on the back nine was that Lowry had the luxury of back to back par fives which he birdied easily, threatening an albatross on the 1st before a third birdie on the 2nd put him inside the top-10.
Lowry made a string of steady pars but having missed the green left on the 9th he was unable to get up and down and he hopes it won’t prove costly with some difficult weather forecast for Saturday.
“To finish like that, look, to come in here and talk to you guys after 10, 15 minutes is pretty disappointing but when I go back and assess my round, I’ll be pretty happy with what I did today,” Lowry reflected.
While the overnight lead hasn’t budged from five-under with Todd Clements and Laurie Canter leading the way, scoring has improved across the board with a handful of 67s while Shubhankar Sharma was best of the morning with a 65.
Lowry wished for something lower than a 69 but believes a similar score could be priceless on Saturday.
“It’s still hard, look at the scores there’s nobody going out shooting seven under, it’s hard to make birdies and you can make bogeys from hitting average shots. I probably should have scored better but I’m somewhat back in the tournament. Tough day tomorrow so shoot a good score tomorrow and we’ll be right there.”
Lowry and McIlroy were the main attraction on Friday morning, so much so that the live television broadcast went off air after they had finished their second rounds.
McIlroy is just one shot off the pace on four-under and Lowry hopes the pair can go head to head over the weekend and deliver a special Irish Open finale.
“I know I can go and give it a run,” remarked Lowry. “I think it’s what the tournament wants and needs. Obviously myself and Rory is up there. It would be great if the two of us could give it a run on Sunday. You never know. It would be nice to go toe-to-toe on Sunday. We’ll see. It’s up to me to get myself there. I’m pretty sure he’ll get there, anyway.”
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