Shane Lowry reeled off five birdies in a row on the back nine as he posted an opening eight under par round of 64 to lead by one shot after the first round of the 2025 DP World India Championship.
Keita Nakajima had led for much of the day after firing a seven-under-par 65 in the morning at Delhi Golf Club but afternoon starter Lowry managed to leapfrog him after making eight birdies in his bogey-free opening round.
After carding back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth, it was a birdie bonanza for the Irish Major winner as he picked up shots on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th to join Nakajima at the summit and he was suitably delighted post-round.
“Gave myself a lot of chances and then on the back nine, it was pretty nice. A really nice group, playing with Luke and Tommy, we all had a great time and we all played pretty good. I just rolled in a few more birdies than they did on the back nine,” said Lowry.
“You know, 64 is a really nice score. It’s not that hard when you are out there but when you start missing fairways it becomes quite tricky. Happy with that”, he added.
Playing alongside Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald and his team-mate Tommy Fleetwood, Lowry then finished his round with a birdie from four feet on the 18th to lead the way on eight under par.
“When I saw the draw, I was really happy. Being with the lads, we’ve had some good things happen the last few weeks. I haven’t played with Luke that much in tournaments but obviously I know him pretty well and we all fed off each other and it was nice.
“We could hear the horns from the road. It was not as off-putting as the Bethpage crowd. There was a little Ryder Cup chat out there but at the end of the day we are all professional golfers and we want to shoot the best scores we can. Ultimately we all want to beat each other, too, even though we are friends” added Lowry.
Japan’s Nakajima – winner of the 2024 Hero Indian Open – was his nearest challenger on seven under, one ahead of Casey Jarvis after the South African’s round of 66.
There are 26 Indian players in the field at the $4million event, co-sanctioned with the Professional Golf Tour of India, with 47-year-old Rahil Gangjee leading the home charge after finishing with an eagle to get to five under, alongside Jorge Campillo of Spain and Germany’s Jannik De Bruyne.
The stellar chasing pack includes Donald, Fleetwood and American stars Ben Griffin, Brian Harman and Michael Kim amongst the group of ten players at four under par, while World Number Two Rory McIlroy marked his debut in India with a round of 69, to sit one shot further back alongside a further ten players.
“It’s pretty tricky. You’re just really trying to be as conservative as possible off the tee and then trying to pick off birdies on the par-5s and maybe pick up a couple more”, said McIlroy.
“I thought some of the hole locations early on were really tricky. You play a practice round or a pro-am, the pins are all in the middle of the green, and then you get to tournament day and they start to tuck them away a little bit, and of course definitely played a little tougher than I expected it to today.”
A lot was made of McIlroy not gaming a driver for his round and he admitted he was thinking about it, even though the course doesn’t really set-up for him to use it.
“Dog was out of the bag, probably asleep in the locker. I was sort of thinking about it last night before I went to bed”, he said.
“Well, sometimes if you’re really conservative off a par-5 today, you might have like a 5-wood into the green, but I’m never going to hit driver, so I just thought I’ve got to 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron all the way through, and then I’ve got a 5-wood just in case I need to hit it for an approach shot on a par-5. But I just don’t see any hole out there that I hit to hit it more than say 260, 270 off the tee.”
Ireland’s other representative, Conor Purcell, didn’t have the best day, finishing at two-over par he sits in T99 position. A lot was made of his withdrawal last week with a hand injury and it may be hampering him still but he’s in the last chance saloon in terms of his card so he’ll be hoping for a significant improvement in round two.
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