Shane Lowry desperately wants to win the Masters but he doesn’t want you to know. Maybe it is to keep his own emotions in check or maybe it is because he knows that although he is fourth he could have a mountain to climb to overhaul defending champion Rory McIlroy.
Lowry birdied his opening hole for the second straight day and exuded patience from there as he hit 17 greens in regulation. After good par saves on 11 and 14 he got rewarded for his attitude with a flying finish of birdies on 16 and 18 for a silky smooth bogey-free 69 to lie in a share of 4th place on five-under, seven shots behind McIlroy.
“I’m in a nice position. I played well today. I felt like I did a lot of good things, and my attitude was great. So I’m very, very happy. If you give me this position yesterday morning, I would have taken your hand off. To be kind of in the mix going into the weekend around here is nice, so I’m looking forward to it.
“I felt good. I felt calm. I felt good. I felt like I was hitting the ball in the right spots. You know, I was very happy to convert two of those last three. I mean, great chance on seventeen and probably should have holed that as well, but let’s not get greedy.”
In each of the last fourteen Masters the leader hasn’t come from more than four shots behind after 36 holes. Everybody in the chasing pack is going to have to break that record including Lowry but he is relishing the task knowing that “you don’t get many chances to win the Masters.”
Ryan Gerard, at level par, was at the microphone stand before Lowry and said that he would be surprised if anybody would be better than McIlroy’s -8 at the time tomorrow. The course is firm and fast and Lowry will have to try and let the shackles off tomorrow.
“We’re very lucky it’s not windy,” said the 2019 Open champion. “The wind is kind of light and switching a lot, and it is hard to gauge it. You need to be so precise out there that, you know, whether it’s flicking two or three yards downwind or into the wind makes a lot of difference.
“So it’s tricky, but you know, as we’ve seen, there is some good scores out there, but there’s also some mistakes out there if you get on the wrong side of some of those pin positions.”
Meanwhile, Tom McKibbin missed the cut on seven-over after a 77.
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