Shane Lowry feels going out with low expectations is a mindset he needs to adopt in the future after he opened up his Travelers Championship with a superb bogey-free 64.
Lowry lies in a share of second place with Chez Reavie on six-under-par and at the time of writing he is just two shots behind Keegan Bradley.
“I didn’t really expect much today. Just go out there and try and hit some good shots and make a few birdies and see where it left me,” said Lowry who birdied two of his first three holes before three birdies in four holes saw him turn in 30, he would add a sixth birdie of the day on the par-5 13th.
“Yeah, maybe it’s a frame of mind I probably need to get myself into a little bit more.”
The Clara man usually heads back to Ireland to rest and recuperate and prepare for the Irish Open but because of the change in date for the K Club Palmer North event he had a gap in the schedule after last week’s US Open. and he defied fatigue to move into contention.
“The schedule changed for me this year. Whereas we used to have the Irish Open in a couple weeks’ time the week before the Scottish,” explained Lowry who was T20 at LA Country Club last week.
“We don’t have that this year, so I did have to add another tournament in my schedule around this time. Kind of made sense to play here. It is a place that I like playing. I haven’t played here that much over the years because I normally go home to Ireland straightaway after the U.S. Open, so never really fit into my schedule.
“Yeah, the fact it’s an elevated event is one of the reasons I’m here, but also I do need some FedExCup points, as well, so hopefully can pick up some this week.”
The 2019 Open champion hit 16/18 greens in his opening round and enjoyed an improved performance on the greens, ranking 11th in strokes gained putting.
“I drove it good. When you drive it good there is a lot of mid, short irons out here. I think if you start hitting it offline and getting it in the rough can get a bit tricky. Yeah, iron play has been good.”
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