Shane Lowry seems to have found his form of old as the 39-year-old showed his class in the second round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut, posting a five-under-par 65.
Lowry began his day with a birdie at the par-4 first thanks to a pin point iron from the middle of the fairway which left him just 10 inches from the hole for a tap in three. Another birdie came at the par-4 fourth before he closed out his front nine with a disappointing bogey at the eighth to take the turn one-under.
It was very steady on the back nine until the Offaly man came alive at the 14th, where he went on a four hole birdie run to help him climb 10 places on the leaderboard. Lowry’s putter was red hot, with the best one coming at the 14th where he made a 30ft birdie putt.
Lowry has been in the spotlight since splitting with his former caddie Darren Reynolds to rejoin with Dermot Byrne but the risk seems to be paying off at the moment. Lowry now sits T22 at seven-under.
World no.1 Scottie Scheffler was inches away from joining Jim Furyk as the only player in PGA TOUR history with multiple sub-60 rounds as Scheffler posted an incredible 10-under-par second round to lead by two strokes with a score of 16-under.
“It was kind of funny. It was like, ‘Yeah, it would be cool to shoot 59, but somebody has already shot 58 here, so it’s not even the course record,’” Scheffler said with a smile. “You know, Jim kind of takes away a little bit of the ‘special 59’ when you are losing still.”
Scheffler gained almost five shots to the field with the putter on Friday, and that, he said, was the difference.
“I’d say in golf the line is always pretty fine. I’m sure if you looked at today’s round versus yesterday’s round, it’s probably pretty similar from a ball-striking perspective. It’s a matter of holing a few putts. Some days they’re kind of hanging on the edge and not quite going in, and then other days they’re finding the bottom of the cup,” Scheffler said. “Today was a day definitely which most of them were finding the bottom of the cup.”
Scheffler made 11 birdies, with his only mishap coming at the par-4 second hole.
It was a day of low scores as Norway’s Victor Hovland fought his recent swing issues and posted a 61 to sit just behind Scheffler in second place at 14-under. Hovalnd went bogey free in a round that saw an eagle and seven birdies.
“Yeah, it was awesome stuff today. Obviously been kind of battling some stuff. My golf swing had not felt all that comfortable. But, I felt like things stabilized a lot more today, and I was able to put the ball in the fairway, hit some great iron shots, and putter finally cooperated a little bit more today,” said Hovland.
18-hole leader Eric Cole dropped to T3 alongside Akshay Bhatia with both sitting at 12-under. Cole posted a bogey-free five-under as Bhatia also went bogey-free but making three more birdies for a 62. Bhatia has made over 250ft of putts over the two rounds.
“I just worked so hard on it. You know, I’m consistent with it, and I think that’s what it takes to be a good green reader or a good putter. You see that with a lot of guys how they practice,” said Bhatia.
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