Two bogeys in his closing four holes saw Shane Lowry fall seven shots off the pace at the halfway stage of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, leaving him with an uphill task to qualify for next week’s Signature Event on the PGA Tour.
It was a frustrating day for Lowry on the South Course with just one birdie coming at the par-5 6th but he remained within touching distance of the lead throughout the round until bogeys at 15 and 17 and a closing eagle from leader Stephan Jaeger saw him fall to five-under and into a share of 36th place.
The Offaly man needs at least a top-5 finish to give himself a chance of playing his way into the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am next week.
A sensational birdie, eagle finish on the North Course gave Germany’s Jaeger a 64 and a one shot lead over Danish star Nicolai Hojgaard on twelve-under-par while Thomas Detry and Matthieu Pavon share third place on ten-under on a very continental looking leaderboard so far.
“Finishing like that, yeah, it was exciting,” said Jaeger, who birdied five of his first eight holes and had just one bogey.
He said he hit a good drive into the wind on his closing hole and then tugged his approach shot a bit.
“I wanted it to kind of go middle of the green and I went right at it. It ended up landing just short of the pin and scooting kind of back fringe,” he said. “Had a little downhill right-to-lefter about 35 feet and it ended up curling in. It was awesome to see.
“But it’s always nice to make eagles and birdies,” said the 32-year-old Jaeger, who has been on TOUR since 2018 and is still looking for his first win. “Nobody can take those away from you. I’m pumped to play the South Course two more days. I love this place. This is probably one of my favorite tournaments every year.”
Séamus Power missed the cut by three shots at level-par.
Leave a comment