Shane Lowry found yet another watery grave as a closing bogey saw him miss the cut by a shot at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Bay Hill has been kind to Lowry recently after finishes of 7th and 3rd in his last two appearances but he couldn’t shake off the hangover of his Cognizant Classic collapse as a second round of 73 saw him fall shy of the cut on three-over.
Standing in the 18th fairway, Lowry’s approach to the green landed in the one place it couldn’t on the water hazard rocks just short of the green. The Offaly man was inside the cut on plus two at the time and had to get up and down from the rocks. He could only play sideways via a planned ricochet leaving himself 38-feet for the weekend salvaging par.
He was unable to and it brought and end to a stinging few days.
There was plenty of good stuff from Lowry as he eased through the front nine with eight pars and a birdie before a rollercoaster back nine.
Water proved his downfall again as he double bogeyed the 11th before chipping in from 30 yards to eagle at 12 to immediately erase the damage.
Back to back bogeys on 14 and 15 left him outside the cut line and it looked like he had done enough to get back in after a birdie on 16 and a sand save on 17 before he had one more sting in the tail with hi 156-yard approach to the last.
There is still Irish interest in the shape of Rory McIlroy who trails runaway leader Daniel Berger by nine shots despite a much improved 68 on day two.
Berger is 13-under-par after a steady 68 of his own gave him a five-shot lead over Akshay Bhatia as he hunts his first win in five years.
“Actually, I feel like I played better,” Berger admitted.
“Yesterday was one of those days where you just kind of tallied up at the end and you’re like, wow, I made nine birdies.
“I think the course was a little tougher today. The green speeds are up there, the pin positions are tough.
“So I’m looking forward to the next couple of days, seeing what the challenge brings.”
Big hitters in Ludvig Aberg, and Collin Morikawa are alongside Sahith Theegala on seven-under but six shots off the pace.
McIlroy’s four-under total is good enough to share 9th place and he hopes the golf course continues to toughen up over the weekend and the chasing pack come back towards him.
“If we don’t get any rain the next couple of days, which it looks like we won’t, it’s going to be really difficult,” McIlroy predicted.
After letting some shots go late in his round on Thursday as big numbers plagued him again, he was pleased with the patience he showed on day two.
“Yeah, very pleased. One bogey. Hit it in the water on 8. But made a good putt for bogey there. I really felt like that kept any momentum that I had for the round going. I played the last 10 holes really, really well. Overall real really pleased. Played a very sort of controlled, patient round of golf, which you need to do around here. Yeah, good day’s work.
“I played yesterday okay as well. I made a couple of big numbers. I felt like the wind got very strong on us for a portion of the back nine yesterday. Definitely got a lot tougher. I wasn’t too displeased with how I played yesterday, obviously I just didn’t hold it together and score the way I wanted to coming down the last few holes. But I felt like my game’s in pretty good shape the last couple days.”
World number one Scottie Scheffler is ten shots back on three-under.
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