Shane Lowry has given himself a great chance to end his near four year wait for a victory at a golf course that perhaps owes him one as he roared into a share of the lead at the Cognizant Classic.
A terrific eight-under 63, helped by a front nine of 30, has Lowry alongside Austin Smotherman on 13-under-par one clear of Nico Echavarria and Taylor Moore.
The Offaly man burst out of the traps with an opening birdie before adding gains on the 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th to share the lead. After a birdie on 10 he finished strong with back to back closing birdies.
After a disappointing opening round on the greens, Lowry took just 24 blows on Saturday as he took advantage of his excellent iron play – he leads in strokes gained approach over the 54 holes.
“Everything went pretty well, especially early on,” Lowry said. “I felt like I hit the ball in the fairway a lot yesterday, and I missed a few fairways early today, but I hold a few nice putts at the start, and then I started hitting the ball really well and giving myself lots of chances, and converted a few, and I felt like it was just a really nice all round.
“And to birdie the last two was kind of the icing on the cake.”
Lowry has come oh so close to winning since the 2022 BMW PGA Championship with particular pain coming here at PGA National as he was infamously denied by Sepp Straka and Mother Nature.
He hopes tomorrow the golfing gods will smile on him.
“Yeah, like, you get cool breaks and bad breaks, and that was a bad break,” he said.
“But yeah, we’ll see, hopefully none of that tomorrow.
“It’s not necessarily easy to lead around this golf course. There’s a lot of very difficult shots. So yeah, I’m up there where I want to be.
“I’ve had a few chances to win this tournament, and hopefully I can convert it tomorrow.”
Lowry spoke of enjoying home comforts in the Florida swing and it seems to have shaved a few strokes off his card.
“When I moved here at first, I hated Florida golf, the grain, Bermuda (grass). Everything about it was tricky for me,” Lowry said. “Just from living down here and spending time down here, I’ve become better at it.”
Hopes of an Irish double act faded as Seamus Power moved in the wrong direction and potentially cost himself some valuable FedEx Cup points.
The West Waterford man slopped to a 73 which saw him drop from a share of 13th place to tied 51st on two-under-par.
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