Shane Lowry reignited the engines to revive his Turkish Airlines Open bid with a rousing seven-under par round of 65 in Antalya.
The Clara golfer fired eight birdies in a seven-under par salvo, matching his lowest score on the Maxx Royal track that he posted in 2013 to give his hopes a massive boost in this year’s Race to Dubai.
Yet, despite the effort that has seen him move inside the top-25 and to within five shots of Austrian Matthias Schwab’s halfway lead, Lowry was left with a pinch of regret post-round having agonisingly lipped out at the last for 64.
“I can’t remember the last time I shot a 65 and was disappointed with myself to be honest,” Lowry said.
“I played lovely out there and gave myself a lot of chances, a couple of eagle chances, probably could have holed one or two. But I played lovely today and I’m very happy.
“It is perfect weather for golf, it is pretty easy out there and the scoring shows you that. I will need another one or two of those if I am to contend the next few days.”
Lowry’s scoring was aided by a demolition job on the four par-5’s where the Offaly golfer picked up four birdies, albeit with a couple of eagle chances sliding by in the process.
“I hit great shots into them, into every one of them,” he added. “I had two very good eagle chances, missed those, and made birdies on the others as well. It was one of those days where I got the number and only had eyes for the flag. I felt good out there today.”
After enduring an ice cold day with the putter on Thursday and opening his tournament at a paltry level par, Lowry was asked how much time he had spent on the putting green ahead of turning his fortunes around on day two.
“I thought the greens were a lot nicer this morning. Look it was more of a mental thing, I struggle to trust it when the greens are not rolling as good as you would like and that’s what happened me yesterday. I missed a couple early on and just struggled with it from then on.”
“To be honest, the putting green was so bad I only spent ten minutes really and then I hit twenty balls as I have kind of got a good feeling at the minute so I wanted to keep that going.
“I felt good with how I was hitting the ball yesterday which was why I was so disappointed after the round so I just wanted to try keep that feeling going and take it into today and thankfully I did.
“I said that to Bo going down the last – it would have been nice to hole that putt for a 64. I hit a good putt but look a 65 I am not going to complain too much about it.”
Full scoring HERE
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