Sometimes a golfer’s biggest battle is the one they have with themselves. Before the Open Championship Shane Lowry spoke of wanting it too much and how golf hasn’t been loving him back. Through the fist 36 holes he has looked comfortable and has shown resilience when needed.
Lowry’s season to date is a what could have been story. Big chances to win have passed him by in Dubai and Florida the latter of which he hasn’t quite recovered from, yet. He has felt beaten down and frustrated by his results but he knows his game is there. That’s often where golf is most challenging.
But there is something different about Lowry this week. He is letting it happen. At three-under-par he is five shots off the lead having played very nicely. Could he be a few shots closer to the lead? Sure. But he admitted himself that he feels in control of his game.
Teeing off in round one yesterday, Lowry needed to hole one of those six-footers for par on the first. He got it. He then birdied the 2nd from 35-feet. It was some early momentum which he hasn’t always had as of late. He turned an over-par start into an early dart into red figures.
Lowry hasn’t finished inside the top-20 since coming 2nd at the Cognizant. But in that period has been some really good golf spoiled by momentum halters. A Masters Sunday to forget, a random three-putt, an inexplicable double bogey. Even last week he was going steadily in Scotland before finishing his round bogey, double bogey.
The Offaly man was two-under through twelve holes of his opening round. A bogey on the difficult 13th was no disaster before a crazy four-putt bogey on the par-5 14th set alarm bells ringing. He followed that up with a third straight dropped shot.
With the way his summer has been going, standing on the sixteenth tee now at one-over you would have been forgiven for thinking that he was going to finish two or three-over.
He spoke earlier in the week upon the departure of his three-year-long caddie Darren Reynolds that he needed a different voice, a change on the golf course. The closest thing he can change on the golf course that isn’t himself is the man on the bag. In stepped Dermot Byrne for the first time since 2018.
Perhaps it’s a fresh relationship that triggered a positive response from Lowry. The 2019 Open champion showed brilliant resilience to birdie the 16th and 17th holes and also make a gutsy par save on the 18th. Today, he bogeyed the 17th but put his frustration behind him and nailed an iron from 176 yards to four-feet for a closing birdie.
Scottie Scheffler has been widely praised for his bounce back ability. Lowry has shown it in abundance so far this week. Maybe his luck is beginning to turn. He spoke of his career being like a speed bump. If he can build on what he has shown this week he could be about to fly over the bump and accelerate.
“I felt like this for a lot of this year, and then obviously my results don’t show it. Yeah, it’s just a strange old game we play, isn’t it? The last few months have been probably, you would say, a bit of a speed bump in my career where your career is full of ups and downs. This is obviously on the way down, but hopefully hit straight back up this weekend.”
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