Shane Lowry chipped in twice in a row to charge into contention heading into the halfway stage of the Cognizant Classic at PGA National.
Lowry holed 40-yard pitch at the tough sixth (his 15th) to get to two-under for his round before holing a flop shot from deep rough at the 208-yard seventh as he moved to within four shots of Jake Knapp on eight-under with a 68.
Lowry had opened with a 66 but resumed his tournament seven shots off the pace such was the low scoring on day one so it is perhaps a surprise that a 68 has moved him up eleven places and into a share of fifth place and considering he lost nearly two shots to the field in strokes gained putting, he got everything out of his round.
“I sort of felt like today anytime I hit a good shot I missed the putt, and anytime I hit a bad shot I chipped in,” said Lowry who is looking to go one better than his second place finish in 2023 after a storm deluge saw him pipped to the post by Sepp Straka at the old Honda Classic.
“Yeah, look, I played okay. I don’t feel 100 percent confident in my game so it’s a tricky golf course to feel like that out there. I get off to a bad start. But I feel like I hit two great shots into 18 and got my round going a little bit. I played okay, but yeah, 6 and 7 were just bonus really. I’m 6-under for the tournament.”
The Offaly man finished poorly on Thursday and started in similar fashion with a bogey on his fifth hole, but a birdie on his ninth as well as three more on the back nine have given him a fighting chance heading into the weekend even if he doesn’t feel totally confident in his game.
It’s been a mentally pleasing performance from Lowry so far in the opening 36 holes and with the course set to firm up for a more familiar PGA National feel, the 2019 Open champion knows that could be as important as anything.
“I finished badly yesterday. I felt bad yesterday, and then I went and hit some balls on the range, and it didn’t feel good and it didn’t feel good this morning.
“But I would say I was mentally very good. I played the game very well. I got my way around the course well. Yes, I didn’t hit the ball as well as I would have liked, but I think 8-under for two rounds around here is pretty good, even thought the leaders or leader is a decent ways ahead.
“There’s a lot of golf to play this weekend, and I think even I’ve seen this morning the course is firming up, and it will firm up as the week goes on and it won’t be as easy. I’m very happy the position I’m in. I’m going to take a couple of hours now and probably go out late afternoon where I live and I might hit balls for a half an hour just to try and get a good feeling going into the weekend.”
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