Shane Lowry admitted that a win was the only thing lacking from his 2025 resumé, but he’s taken another step towards righting that wrong at the last hurdle as he’s making the most of a special invitation to compete in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
An opening four-under brought mixed feelings out of the Offaly man, who, having birdied each of the opening four holes, watched many good putts burn the edges on the back nine in particular. But he was hitting the ball well, and he was rolling it nicely. The putts just weren’t dropping at the rate he’d have liked or even expected.
It was a similar story on day two, as he birdied the first two and four of the first seven, but made it to -5 with another birdie on 11. From there, he parred his way to the clubhouse, but with the scoring proving a little tougher on Friday, he climbed into a tie of second and will be in the second-to-last group on moving day.
“It was pretty solid, to be honest,” Lowry said afterwards. “Really solid both days. In the middle of the round, I didn’t make much happen the last two days, but, felt like I just plotted my way around the course well and you know, played my game around here.
“It’s easy to get [caught up] in trying to hit it hard and long on certain tee shots, but I just played my own game, put it in position. And yeah, I drove it great today, and my putter feels good, so yeah, I’m pretty happy.”
The European Ryder Cup hero was among the midway leaders in Abu Dhabi last week, and made 23 birdies and an eagle over the 72 holes at Yas Links, but the mistakes proved costly and he’s happy to have made just a single bogey over the first 36 holes this week.
Trailing Nicolai Højgaard by three, he knows better than most that it’s all about putting yourself in position to challenge on the final day.
“I think I made a few stupid errors last week, to be honest,” he said. “I think – I’m not sure whether it’s a mental thing or just, you know, being a little bit better when I missed my second shots, when I get out of trouble, but yeah, I certainly made a few too many silly mistakes. The likes of, last Friday afternoon, I bogeyed 17 and 18 and Tommy [Fleetwood], I think he went par-birdie or something, so therefore I gave him three shots, you know, it’s hard to give someone of Tommy Fleetwood’s caliber three shots even though it’s only the Friday afternoon.
“This week I’ve been good. I’ve only made one bogey in two days, which is nice. I would have liked – I was in position on 14 and 18 [both par-5s] to make birdies. It would have been nice to make at least one of them, but I’m in a nice position going into the weekend.
“I’m pretty happy.”
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