Lowry and Power remain in touch with leaders

Shane Lowry brushed off his final round of 81 at the Masters last week with a solid opening 68 at the RBC Heritage in Harbour Town.

Lowry carded four birdies and just one bogey at the third to sit in a share of 21st place on three-under-par, seven shots shy of Justin Thomas who set the pace around Hilton Head with a blistering 61.

Thomas fired eleven birdies, including five in his last seven holes and one bogey to lead by three shots on ten-under from Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler.

Thomas did miss a five footer on the last to set a new course record of 60 but he was pleased to be back in the groove after a disappoint performance at Augusta National.

“I just didn’t play well last week,” said Thomas, who made 165 feet of putts in a course record-equalling effort as he looks for his first win since the 2022 PGA Championship.

“Put some really good work in. I felt like the couple of days leading into the start today, and I felt prepared.”

Scheffler was without his A-game last week but looked back to his best as he began his title defence with a routine bogey free 64.

“I felt like if you compared my four rounds last week to today, today would be a much less stressful round of golf in terms of scrambling for a par,” Scheffler said.

“A lot of the stuff I had to do last week I felt like I didn’t have to do today to shoot a good score.

“The golf course is obviously a bit different, but I was in position most of the day today. I hit a lot of really good iron shots.

“I got off to a good start. Overall, yeah, fairly I would say stress-free day.”

Meanwhile, at the Corales Puntacana Championship, the secondary PGA Tour event played alongside this week’s Signature Event in Hilton Head, Seamus Power got off to a good start.

On a day of low scoring, Power carded a five-under 67 to share 19th place, five shots behind Joel Dahmen at Corales Golf Course.

Beginning on the back nine, Power rolled in birdies at the 14th and 18th before he made it back to back gains on the first.

His only blemish came on the par- 3 2nd but he finished with a flourish as he birdied the fourth ,fifth and seventh holes to keep in touch with Dahmen.

Dahmen was in sensational form with a bogey-free ten-under 62 to set the course record and he leads by two shots from Matt Wallace, Keith Mitchell and Garrick Higgo.

Dahmen, whose lone PGA TOUR victory was four years ago at this Additional Event tournament in the Dominican Republic, finished with three birdies over his last four holes.

“I felt good. I get good feelings when I come back to this place, good vibes,” said the American.

“The wind was probably the least we’ve played it in a long time and took advantage of it. Just putted really well today. Fairways are generous and I think I hit a bunch of ’em, and obviously got around the hole and made all those.”