In the mix at the halfway point of the Masters is a great place to be, but Shane Lowry has no intention of simply enjoying his position heading into the weekend with his sole focus on remaining in the green jacket shakeup.
Irish golf will have two rolls of the dice for a maiden Masters winner and Lowry is in a great position on five-under-par after a very comfortable looking 68 left him just three shots behind Justin Rose and one behind his great friend Rory McIlroy.
Lowry took advantage of the par-5 2nd with a routine birdie and after dropping his only shot of the day on the par-3 4th, he caught fire with birdies on the 6th, 8th and 10th. Although he didn’t make a red number on the par fives on the back nine he picked up his fifth birdie of the day on 14.
“I sort of had a target to shoot something in the 60s today and then I’d be in a nice position going into the weekend. The course must have got a lot of rain last night because the course was quite soft and it was gettable, even though it was windy and tricky,” explained the Clara man.
“But like you see in the scoring, there is quite a few good scores. I’m sure there’s bad scores, as well. But yeah, I felt like the course was gettable. I felt like I played a pretty solid round of golf. Didn’t do anything spectacular.
“A couple of times I got myself out of position. I think I did a great job getting me back in, and I’m right where I want to be going into the weekend.
“I opened up today beautifully. The only shot I really missed on the first few holes was the tee shot on 4, and then I hit a poor tee shot on 8 and got fortunate and took advantage of that and made birdie.
“From there on, I played Amen Corner beautifully. I felt like I did everything right. Yeah, I’m pretty happy with my day’s work.”
The 2019 Open champion was third here in 2022 while he had two top-6 finishes in two majors last year.
At this stage of his career it’s all about winning for Lowry who is determined to be the last man standing on what is a blockbuster leaderboard.
“Look, I don’t come here just to enjoy myself. I come here to compete. Look, we had a lovely group. Bryson played great. Hideki played well. I played well. We kind of fed off each other. It was nice being out there.
“The crowds were big. I could see Rory was doing something today, which was good for him. Like I said, right where we want to be going into the weekend.
“Yeah, this is what we practice for. This is what you get up out of bed in the morning, for late tee times on Saturdays and Sundays of majors.
“I got myself a late tee time tomorrow afternoon and hopefully I can go out and do something pretty good and get myself a late tee time Sunday and take it from there.”
It was an all Ireland breakfast club at Augusta National on Friday morning and Lowry who has become a chief defender of McIlroy over the years was chuffed for his mate to get himself back in the mix with a 66.
“I’m happy for him. I ate breakfast with him this morning. We talked about what he did yesterday and he was quite frustrated. I’m sure last night was tough for him.
“But for both of us, there’s a lot of golf to be played this weekend yet, and he knew that, and what a run he made on the back nine. That’s what this golf course can throw up if you play well.”
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