Shane Lowry is lurking just one shot off the early pace at the 108th PGA Championship after he produced a measured and mature performance on day one at a testing Aronimink Golf Club.
Lowry birdied the 18th to sign for a two-under 68 and he is tucked in behind a seven-way tie for the lead which includes world number one Scottie Scheffler.
It was around round that exuded patience. Aronimink’s toughness took players by surprise on the opening day and things could have unravelled early for Lowry after he bogeyed his opening hole. He was still over-par for his round after a birdie on 6 was cancelled out by a bogey on the tough par-3 8th. But he kickstarted his day with a textbook chip in eagle on the par-5 9th and he followed that up with a birdie on the 11th.
After missing the long par-3 14th green left he took his medicine and made a bogey. His patient approach was rewarded with a closing birdie.
“I think I just managed my way around the course. It got tricky. You know everyone was kind of intrigued to see what the course was going to be like and what it was going to play like. And as you see, it’s playing quite difficult. And there’s no low scores. 3-under is the best score at the minute.
“I felt like you just, when you get out of position, you need to try and get back in position, and you need to take your chances when you got them. I felt like I did a good job of that today.”
The 2019 Open champion is still chasing his first victory since the 2022 BMW PGA Championship and there has been a bit of a hangover after two near misses in Dubai and Florida on top of a final round of 80 at the Masters but he was pleased with how he knuckled down and the birdie on 18 has given him a pep in his step heading into round two where he might find morning conditions slightly easier.
“I hit a 7-iron in and obviously a little bit further right than I would have liked in the air. I don’t know where it pitched. There was a pitch mark beside the hole, I don’t know if it pitched beside the hole or not, but, yeah, I was pretty happy with that one. That will make dinner taste nice.”
Lowry turned a wretched day for the Irish into a good one. He is comfortably the leading Irishman with Rory McIlroy, Pádraig Harrington and Tom McKibbin all languishing on four-over.
At the top, world number one and defending PGA champion Scheffler put to bed his habit of slow starts and muscled his way to the top of the leaderboard on three-under 67. His patient approach of playing to the heart of greens paid dividends with the bonus of a couple of lengthy birdie putts going in.
He shares the lead with the surprise package of 2010 champion Martin Kaymer, Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee, Ryo Hisatsune and Alex Smalley.
“Is it really a lead when you’re tied with six or seven other guys?” said Scheffler who missed just one fairway. “Definitely the best start I’ve gotten off to this year, maybe besides American Express.
“Your scores are definitely going to be lower if you hit the ball on the fairway, but it’s still really, really difficult to make birdies.”
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