Rónán MacNamara in Royal Troon
Shane Lowry hit driver, driver to the 500-yard par-4 15th and came up 51 yards short, he hit driver to the 238-yard par-3 17th and was short but after carding a 77 that wounded him he still has a chance of winning the 152nd Open Championship.
“It was hard. Playing par threes hitting drivers is not much craic. Roll the ball back?” quipped Lowry who was still raw with emotion less than ten minutes after missing a par putt on the 18th green to fall back to one-under, three shots behind Billy Horschel at the top of the leaderboard after torrential rain in Royal Troon.
“Driver-driver into 15, 16 was playing ridiculously long, driver into 17 and then you’re standing on the 18th tee wondering if you can actually hit the fairway. It’s 230 yards to the fairway. Bear in mind my driver pitched to about 220 yards on the 17th hole. It’s not much fun out there.”
“You would have to question why there wasn’t a couple of tees put forward today. 15 is 500 yards playing into that wind. Yeah, they keep trying to make holes longer and yet the best hole on this course is 100 yards so…”
The best hole on the course is indeed the postage stamp. Playing at 130 yards on Saturday, it cost Lowry his second double bogey on 15 holes and despite playing the back nine in 40 with dropped shots on the 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th, he lamented the mess he made of the 8th and the cardinal sin of finding the left coffin bunker.
“Obviously there is no doubt that I am going to go out there tomorrow thinking I can win the tournament but it is just hard right now. You have to give me a bit of leeway. Ten minutes ago I had a putt for par on the 18th green and I’m here now talking to you guys trying to figure out how I hit a 77 in my own head.
“This game is just hard and you nearly feel hard-done by for playing well the first two days in those conditions. It was honestly brutal. I guess for me, the 8th hole was a killer really. Get par there and you can still shoot three or four-over from there and I would still be leading the tournament. I just pulled my wedge shot there.
“I don’t really know what to say. It was a grind. It wasn’t much fun.”
Teeing off with a two shot lead in the persistent rain, Lowry made the ideal start with three steady opening pars to extend his lead to three before a birdie on the par-5 4th looked to have kicked him into gear.
Good birdie chances went on the par-3 5th, par-5 6th and a six-footer on the 7th before disaster struck on the 8th.
The back nine on Saturday ranks as one of the toughest Lowry has played such was the ferociousness of the falling rain but despite such difficulties, Lowry only missed two fairways, on the first and the sixteenth.
If he doesn’t win tomorrow he will lament a poor putting performance where he ranked 77th out of the 80 players that started round three and some sloppiness around the greens (73rd in that category) also put his putter under humongous pressure.
“I really wanted to hole that putt on the last. I knew Billy made bogey and knew Dan (Brown) had obviously made double and I would only be two back.
“At three back, you are still right in the tournament, but it is going to take me a couple of hours to get over today. I am obviously very gutted now but I have a job to do tomorrow and a chance to win this tournament,
“It is just hard because I felt I played a lot of unbelievable golf today. I didn’t miss my first fairway until 16 and hit some great iron shots. I just didn’t hole the putts early on when I had chances and then I missed a few par putts.
“On the way in I felt I couldn’t make a par. Honestly, it was hard. It is hard when you are in that situation but it is what it is.”
Surface water appeared in some of the more unknown parts of Royal Troon and it became apparent early that plenty of players were going to drown in the conditions and it was about keeping your head above water.
Horschel did just that and the American who is without a top-20 finish in the Open and has just two top-10s in major championships holds a one shot 54-hole lead for the first time in a major.
Despite bogeying the last, the man with the backwards cap still carded a fantastic round of 69 to lead by the minimum on four-under-par ahead of Christen Lawrence, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele and Daniel Brown on a day where the morning starters were the big winners.
Lawrence and Burns battled hard to make the cut on Friday and their efforts were rewarded with flat calm conditions as they carded rounds of 65 to soar into contention with Henley carding a 66.
Schauffele was the only other player from the leading groups to card an under-par round and the PGA champion battled to a 69.
Horschel believes his Open Championship record is mixed and he showed why, displaying an obvious love for one of the toughest tests.
“I’ve just always embraced the toughness of anything. I’ve always enjoyed it. I think that’s the best way you can do to have a chance to play well.
“I enjoy hitting little bunt shots. It’s not the — I get tired of golf where you’re making full swings and you lean into a certain number and it stops. I like when you have to be creative and find a way to get around the golf course, and I think I’ve always done that well for the most part.
“So I think that’s why I enjoy days like this.”
World number one Scottie Scheffler hit 9/9 greens on the front nine but held just sixteen feet of putts and he managed to defy a stone cold putter and get in the house at two-under with a 71, a shot ahead of Lowry.
Pádraig Harrington will rue three late bogeys as he fell from one-over to three-over and seven shots off the pace. The 52-year-old is just outside of striking distance as well as having a barrage of players in front of him.
“It’s not been my week. A bit disappointed there at the end there. I knew those holes were going to be tough at [what is] at this stage the worst of the weather,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tom McKibbin and Darren Clarke will be re-united on the final day having played a practice round together. The pair are on nine and eleven-over respectively.
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